What can I plant for privacy?

[springtimesunshine]

Hello 👋🏻

Wondering if some gardeners can help me. New neighbours have moved in and decided in their wisdom to cut down a load of lovely bushes that aren't strictly in their land but not on mine either so not much I can do. Poor wildlife!

I want to plant something on my side up the fence that will grow tall, but not big outwards as our gardens slope and when they stand at the end of their garden they can now see over my fence.

Fence is 6ft. What can I put in that will grow quickly higher than that that's not super high maintenance? I'm not very green fingered!

Thanks!

You will probably have more luck in Gardening as there as some super knowledgeable people... compared to me who is enthusiastic but a bit clueless.
Some questions:
Who owns the fence (can you add trellis)
Do you want to grow something on the fence or next to the fence?
Which way does it face, I.e. how much sun does it get?

I’d go with Laurel shrubs they grow very quickly

Agree with Laurel shrubs

Ah that's a good idea @Procrastatron thank you. @mnhq could you stick this in gardening please?

There is running thread about something similar, look up last straw on advanced search.
Plenty of very good suggestions.

Not too sure about Laurel, there are much better options for wildlife and birds and screening.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4187481-Last-fucking-straw

Willow is good-it’ll do 3m in a season then thicken up so you can keep on top of it, cutting every third one down every third year, iyswim.
Or leave it a couple of years accidentally and end up with a 25 foot tall hedge that’s a bugger to cut down, tho that might be just me.

Anything that means you can come on Mumsnet to tell us all about trimming your bush!

I own the fence, definitely. I'm so cross but as it's wasn't mine and it's cut down now there's not much I can do. CFs.

There just be something in the air with that other thread, and we've just had new people move also on some houses that are sort of to the side of us and they had some lovely tall trees in their garden. They've come in and chopped them straight across with a chainsaw to fence height so they're just stumpy trunks. Now we get a nice view of their rotting windows rather than the lovely greenery were used to.

I need to move to the proper countryside, clearly!

It's spiring and people start thinking about their gardens without paying any attention that the birds are already nesting.

It's heartbreaking, the noise of the chipper and the saws.

I have planted griselinia [ New Zealand privet] and it isn't as 'thuggish' as laurel but grows just as quickly. It gives me a lot of privacy and is easy to look after. The leaves are evergreen, a paler green than laurel and larger than English privet. On most internet hedging sites.

I'm all for keeping things tidy and to be honest they did all need a trim. But to hack everything away with a chainsaw is just awful. We've got so much wildlife here (we're right on the edge on the countryside, sort of in it, but close to a town with the villages about two miles away) and it really does make me want to up sticks and go somewhere more rural. I don't want to look at lots of houses I want to look at trees I feel like all the hacking is making it look like a new build estate which has a token tree every street and that's it!

Bamboo in pots (it's a thug so don't plant in the ground). Gives an instant and attractive screening.