Planning to keep my privacy when neighbours put up a loft extension

[YawnyMcYawn]

The trend in our area is for people to buy the many many bungalows round here and put in loft extensions - often the type that look like a big oblong box. Fair enough. I have no problem with that - and it'd be tough luck if I did .

My house has a triangular back garden with the house here _ the shortest of the sides running up from the end of the line next to the 'the'
and the row of bungalows as the third side. So there's the potential for 3 more loft extensions as well as the new one at the pointy end between the longest 2 lines. I wish I'd paid more attention in geometry now

The existing loft extension is blocked by a big tree with lots of bush ivy and overlooks our neighbours garden rather than ours. We've also let the hedge grow up a bit down that end.

The couples in the other bungalows are all elderly and at the moment, the back of the house and the garden are as completely private as the day we bought the house.

So what can we do now to get ready for the time when those inevitable loft extensions are staring right down into the garden and through the windows/patio doors in to the house?

At the moment, there's a fence behind a conifer hedge that we keep trimmed to just the height we need but a 2m fence wouldn't do the job in future.

I've thought of a 2m fence with trellis but I think 2m is the maximum including trellis.

I think a densely planed ivy fedge would have a similar height restriction if the neighbours weren't happy with it.

Maybe rip the conifers out, replace the fence and find 'mop top' evergreen trees to plant as specimens so we don't fall foul of the high hedges law?

Our existing neighbours wouldn't mind as we had as ash and an oak felled 2 years ago after they had a moan (trees were also not in A1 nick) and now they're moaning about not being able to use their back patios because it's to sun-baked

Thanks for getting this far. I'd really appreciate some ideas.

[RoganJosh]

We're growing some evergreen bushes as trees, hoping they will be a few m eventually. I've planted viburnum tinus, a strawberry tree, photinia and a Portuguese laurel.

Here's what I'm attempting to do with them.
www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/9131409/Dont-downsize-your-trees-upsize-a-shrub.html

[YawnyMcYawn]

Thanks Rogan that's an excellent article and it's given me lots of ideas. I think a row of these could fall foul of the High Hedges legislation but if I look into growing a very large shrub on a fan shape of 3 trunks and training the tops out, I might be able to end up with 1 plant giving a width of screening and then put in a clump forming bamboo either side. Bamboo are a grass so don't count.
Good luck with yours.

[funnyperson]

I'm totally up for this raising of the canopy of flowerig shrubs

[itsnothingoriginal]

Good article! I've gone for a lot of those shrubs in my small, very overlooked garden. The cherry laurel especially is great for dense, fast growing privacy and I've also added a photinia red robin, pyracantha and some bamboo to break up the feeling of having a solid hedge. You could also build up the height using garden arches, trellis or rose swags in some places along your fence to support climbers for more variety?

Most neighbours would surely appreciate the privacy your border would provide from their angle too. I would think it's the dreaded leylandii that causes problems for people rather than a pretty mixed border of trees and shrubs.

[YawnyMcYawn]

Hmm I'm not sure they would appreciate it entirely. Their gardens are very small which woiuld bring their loft windows close to my boundary. My garden is about 5 times as long as theirs at a guess. So anything that gives me privacy would affect their light.

[Suttonmum1]

How about supplementing with posts and removable shade sail type affair. Might even be legal to do that in panels above the fence line and only put them up for some of the year?

[echt]

Yawny, not entirely sure I'm in sympathy with your neighbours. They get to overlook you? Their problem about the light. I'd protect my privacy.

[YawnyMcYawn]

echt - remember these are hypothetical future neighbours who I'm making all these assumptions about.

[shovetheholly]

I would have a look at screening plants rather than really dense ones, as you might be able to get away with a bit more. Things like bamboo can get really big if you have the right conditions, and while it doesn't provide a visually impenetrable barrier, it gives enough of a screen for basic privacy (obviously you can't walk around in your knickers with the lights on in winter, but you will feel more secluded, if you see what I mean). If you got an elongated raised bed, you could easily add quite a bit to that height.

Equally, you could think about a pleached-style hedge with something like hornbeam (which retains brown leaves in winter), which would give you a gap and light at the bottom, and then a screen further up where it is needed.

I would avoid conifers as they grow out as well as up, and cut out light underneath to your garden as well as those of your neighbours. They're also more obviously 'antisocial', whereas people are often a bit more lenient towards more architectural plantings because they can enjoy them too, if you see what I mean.

[YawnyMcYawn]

But I want to still be able to walk around in my knickers! And thinking about it, that might well put them off having windows overlooking my garden in the first place.
I had thought of bamboo as they are doing a great job of screening the front garden in half barrels. Thanks for the ideas.

[shovetheholly]

Hahahaha!

I thought my house wasn't overlooked, despite being in quite a dense area, thanks to some cleverly angled buildings. Unfortunately, though, I did not think about the footpath that runs behind my house.

Anyhoo, when I put my washing away, I put some music on and have a bit of a dance around. Well, I was doing this last winter, slightly less well clad than would be considered generally respectable, and I noticed one of the men who lives down the street standing on a footpath that leads up behind my house and STARING. Whenever I see him coming past my house, I dive for cover behind the sofa now.

[YawnyMcYawn]

Does he pass your house more often in good drying weather?