Need a couple of trees to screen a shed
New to the forum (but not the show...) and looking for some advice.
First some background. About five years ago we moved into a newly built house close to farmland. Our back garden is rectangular (approx. 25x30m) and currently covered with lawn. The view looks out over some farmland (usually planted with barley or corn - depending on the year) behind which is a wood.
Our neighbours to the right have a similar situation except that they seem not to like the view...within a few weeks of the newly established lawn being finished they put a huge wooden climbing frame/swing set at the back right, then a couple of years later an oak tree (in the middle) and now...hence my post, in the back left alongside our garden a 3m wooden "cube" which acts as a garden shed. It's actually rather 'chic' but it spoils our view and sticks out like a rather large sore thumb.
So, we're looking for a couple of quick growing trees with a good spread and low-lying branches that will hide this shed. Inevitably we'll lose a bit of our view but some nice looking trees will be worth it. The maximum height we would be permitted to have is 3m (though a larger growing tree could be trimmed of course).
They would be placed approx. 20 metres from the house(s) and pipes etc.
The soil has a high clay content and the garden is quite exposed.
We do have and old edition of the comprehensive RHS Encyclopaedia of Plants and Flowers but there's almost too much to choose from and information on the internet is often conflicting. So, any advice (evergreen, deciduous, and/or flowering) would be greatly appreciated.
Posts
Any fast growing tree is not going to stop at 3metres. How are the neighbours going to handle their oak when it wants to grow tall?
I suggest you make yourself a trellis screen up which you can grow climbing roses, clematis, honeysuckle. Another alternative would be a hedge on stilts which is basically pleached linden, hornbeam, beech (copper beech looks good) or even catalpa which you grow as bare stemmed specimens and train the upper branches horizontally to give a privacy screen.
Here's a picture of one seen at Chelsea a couple of years ago to give you the idea
You can underplant with all sorts of herbaceous perennials and bulbs for year round interest, keep your view and lose the shed.
I'd certainly agree with obelixx's suggestions Matteo, but I noticed you said the height you'd be 'permitted' is 3 metres. Who has determined that, bearing in mind your neighbour has planted an oak tree!
I think the trellis idea might be easier for you to manage in terms of pruning etc than the stilt hedge, but you'll know best how much skill you have and how much time you'd have for it's maintenance. To get the maximum effect you'll need a good gap between that hedge and your boundary to get in behind it for trimming. That leads me to another question, sorry. What type of boundary do you have - is it fence, wall or hedge? Apologies if you've said and I've missed it.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Ah yes, the oak tree - we're puzzling over that one ourselves since the local planning conditions restrict to 3m.
The boundary between the properties (and the back of the two gardens) is a green wire "grid" fence about 1.2m high - enough of a barrier to keep our kids from running back and forth but not enough to block any view.
I'm not sure a trellis (or the clematis) will stand up to the wind - it's quite exposed and the prevailing wind will hit it dead on.
The hedge on stilts is a possibility (though not beech - please not beech...) but might be a bit too much if we also need some under-planting to cover low down. Also we don't want a line of trees (or hedge) as such - which I think this would need to look right in and of itself - but just something to block the shed. It might also be a bit "obvious" what it's function is whereas a couple of trees/bushes less so. (I should say we get on with the neighbours and have no "problems" with them).
I'd assumed that a quick growing tree would need work to keep it to three metres so thanks for the confirmation but perhaps that's the price to pay. Are there any big bushes out there perhaps?
Buddleia grows quickly and quite tall. My neighbours cropped theirs down last autumn and now it's about 3 m I would say. Acts as a screen between them and the neighbours to the side of them.
They'll probably chop it down again this year. I've only been here 18 mths so don't know their routine.
Budleia would do the trick and you can get them with plain or variegated foliage and flowers from white through pink to lilac and deep purple. They can take a year or two to settle in but will then produce new stems up to 2m high as long as you cut them all back to a pair of buds near the main stem or trunk every spring.
Butterflies and bees love them for the nectar.
You'd see the shed through the bare branches in winter but it would be a filtered view. You would need to cut them back every year to keep to size so invest in some decent secateurs (Felcos) and some good loppers for when the branches get thicker. Wolf are good and not too pricey..
Another problem with trees, which no one seems to have mentioned, is how the roots will spread taking moisture from the rest of the garden and making it more difficult for other plants to do well. If you don't want to try trellis, how about shrubs? they will narrow your view view of the field etc. but give something else worth looking at instead. Suggestions - philadelphus, lilac, weigela. In any case, you haven't mentioned the orientation of your garden, nor the direction of the prevailing wind. Is it possible that the offending 'cube' might give a trellis some protection?
Thanks for the suggestions of Budleia (is that the "butterfly bush?) and others; definitely something to think about.
The garden stretches out (25x30m) roughly SE NW it gets the sun from midday onward. The "cube" is in the back left-hand corner of the neighbours on our right whose garden is the same size and orientation as ours. The prevailing wind direction is SW NE.
Sorry, you did say the prevailing wind would hit the trellis head-on. I missed that. However if the trellis has good supporting posts and (maybe) is linked to the fence, I think it would need gale force winds to damage it. The wind will blow through trellis. It would be more likely to damage a solid fence panel.
You have a point Rozie - and you're probably right - but I was concerned that perhaps, once it is covered by the plant it would not fare so well.
But I'm probably being a bit paranoid.
Anyway, at the moment the big bush idea is sounding promising.