I see both sides of this. A trampoline isn't a crime, it's just to allow some kids to have fun in an age when kids spend too much time indoors and can't be safely permitted to play in the streets or on common land as i did as a child. It's genuinely not that easy to spy when a) you are hurtling through the air giggling; b) looking into a darker room when you are outside in daylight. On the other hand I think your neighbour could take your feelings into account. Explain that you feel overlooked and ask if the trampoline can be relocated and explain that you will be putting up large screening plants if not, which would be a terrible shame as the leaves would drop in her trampoline and her garden would be shaded.
Or at a push...mention you like to sunbathe naked and it won't be appropriate for her kids to see that ?
I can see both sides here really. My neighbour obviously is worried I'm going to put up a trampoline because he told me some false anecdote about needing planning permission to put one up when I first moved in.
I won't be consulting him when I do put one up because I value my little girls' happiness more than his friendship so it's not up for negotiation. It would just be telling him what I'll be doing and cause him a load of undue stress. Hopefully when he sees that it's smaller than the shed I'm removing and putting it in place of, coupled with it only being used by little girls, not drunk adults or anything he might have worried about, he'll not think it's too bad.
Like most kids toys it'll probably just be a novelty at first then will be used only occasionally. I'll probably dosmantle it in winter too. As he's a keen gardner the light benefits of the giant shed being removed will probably outweigh the cost of occasionally seeing a little girl enjoying herself.
I am dealing with this problem is my new house. I've just consulted our friendly local planning officer about how high a trellis I'm allowed and it will cost me £172 to put in for planning permission because the party fence is already 2m high. In the previous house I used a clumping bamboo planted into a hard barrier in the ground (old water butt cut down) which worked quickly and very well.
in our first house it was two lovely little girls who would shout to me everytime I walked out in the garden. I got fed up with it really quickly and tried to avoid eye contact so the whole family stopped talking to us. The next family also put in a trampoline in the same place plus a tree house, but the bamboo and buddleia did the trick beautifully and friendly neighbour relations remained intact.
The neighbours at this house are a couple of older teenage boys 'with challenging behaviour' and their friendly army of carers. The trampoline went up right on the adjoining fence ...obviously....it is 3 meters high. The boys stare straight into the house and shout hello at us with every bounce. My garden and home are places I need to feel relaxed and secluded in.
I've just installed a ground trampoline next to the hedge in our garden. I think it's a good solution, looks much better, and it may work out a lot more expensive but it's a really nice addition to the garden instead of a hulking great mass of poles and netting.
I too could use some suggestions for privacy in my small garden from the neighbours trampoline. They put it there last June right next to the fence which meant every time myself and my little dog went into the garden the children then went in the trampoline screaming my name, bouncing their ball off my conservatory but worst of all taunting Millie all the time. After 2 weeks of this I thought I would try to pluck up the courage to ask my neighbour if they were going to leave it there permanently (she is extremely bad tempered) as it made me uncomfortable as I had no privacy. I didn't get the chance to ask my neighbour though as one afternoon I popped out to do some weeding for 10 mins so of course the daughter saw me in the garden so dashed out to the trampoline and just stared at me all the time shouting at me and my little dog. So as usual I went back in the house with Millie an hour later when I was going out for a walk my neighbour on seeing me stormed up her drive screaming at me for going in the house as anybody else would enjoy watching her kids screaming in the trampoline and enjoying themselves. It was never moving and that she hated my dog. I was so shocked and upset by this even though I know she has a nasty temper I really could't enjoy my garden at all last summer and simply stayed in the house unless I knew they were out and so could enjoy a quick half hour in the garden. So any suggestions please so that this year I can enjoy my garden again as I used to find gardening relaxed me not stressed me thank you.
I wouldn't bank on kids getting bored of it. My neighbours' kids use theirs every day, for hours, all summer long, over five years. They screech, but it's good to hear them having fun and they are good kids. We all have very overlooked gardens on our street, so kids bouncing up and down doesn't feel like an invasion of privacy. But then they can't see into my house.
Would tall reed fence matting, or the like, be any good? Or a tall garden screen? I'm all for quick solutions to pressing problems, after trying to grow climbers over a troublesome trellis for years. I wish I'd just banged up something quick instead of stressing about it for all this time.
How about a sail shade angled to screen it from your view and provide some privacy without blocking out the sun from your patio completely? Or a large parasol that can be angled to achieve the same effect. Or a combination of one of those with a few bamboos in large containers to help fill in any gaps. Definitely worth a friendly word to see if it could be relocated though, good luck!
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
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I see both sides of this. A trampoline isn't a crime, it's just to allow some kids to have fun in an age when kids spend too much time indoors and can't be safely permitted to play in the streets or on common land as i did as a child. It's genuinely not that easy to spy when a) you are hurtling through the air giggling; b) looking into a darker room when you are outside in daylight. On the other hand I think your neighbour could take your feelings into account. Explain that you feel overlooked and ask if the trampoline can be relocated and explain that you will be putting up large screening plants if not, which would be a terrible shame as the leaves would drop in her trampoline and her garden would be shaded.
Or at a push...mention you like to sunbathe naked and it won't be appropriate for her kids to see that ?
I can see both sides here really. My neighbour obviously is worried I'm going to put up a trampoline because he told me some false anecdote about needing planning permission to put one up when I first moved in.
I won't be consulting him when I do put one up because I value my little girls' happiness more than his friendship so it's not up for negotiation. It would just be telling him what I'll be doing and cause him a load of undue stress. Hopefully when he sees that it's smaller than the shed I'm removing and putting it in place of, coupled with it only being used by little girls, not drunk adults or anything he might have worried about, he'll not think it's too bad.
Net curtains would sort part of the problem. Could you negotiate to have certain times when they agree not to use it?
Like most kids toys it'll probably just be a novelty at first then will be used only occasionally. I'll probably dosmantle it in winter too. As he's a keen gardner the light benefits of the giant shed being removed will probably outweigh the cost of occasionally seeing a little girl enjoying herself.
By the time any plants grow enough to hide/screen it (5-10 years), the kids will have moved on to something else. Hopefully!
I am dealing with this problem is my new house. I've just consulted our friendly local planning officer about how high a trellis I'm allowed and it will cost me £172 to put in for planning permission because the party fence is already 2m high. In the previous house I used a clumping bamboo planted into a hard barrier in the ground (old water butt cut down) which worked quickly and very well.
in our first house it was two lovely little girls who would shout to me everytime I walked out in the garden. I got fed up with it really quickly and tried to avoid eye contact so the whole family stopped talking to us. The next family also put in a trampoline in the same place plus a tree house, but the bamboo and buddleia did the trick beautifully and friendly neighbour relations remained intact.
The neighbours at this house are a couple of older teenage boys 'with challenging behaviour' and their friendly army of carers. The trampoline went up right on the adjoining fence ...obviously....it is 3 meters high. The boys stare straight into the house and shout hello at us with every bounce. My garden and home are places I need to feel relaxed and secluded in.
I've just installed a ground trampoline next to the hedge in our garden. I think it's a good solution, looks much better, and it may work out a lot more expensive but it's a really nice addition to the garden instead of a hulking great mass of poles and netting.
Last edited: 07 December 2017 15:53:27
Would tall reed fence matting, or the like, be any good? Or a tall garden screen? I'm all for quick solutions to pressing problems, after trying to grow climbers over a troublesome trellis for years. I wish I'd just banged up something quick instead of stressing about it for all this time.