Trees for end of garden

[JumpJockey]

We've just had a clearance team get rid of loads of rubbish from the end of our garden (old carpets?! Random pallets?) and we've gained about another 10ft of garden The problem is that we now need something to provide privacy. At the moment there are a couple of very iffy elders which are mostly on an angle, but that had lots of handy ivy growing on them to give a bit of screening. We'll probably get rid of them as they take up a lot of the overall space. This will leave a 6ft fence, and then a direct view from the old folks' home over the back.

We'd like to plant some trees there, so that over time they'll provide decent privacy. Their building is quite close to the back fence, so they can see in very well esp from upstairs and just trellis etc wouldn't cut it. We've got one apple tree already (which is fab) but would like to put in a couple/few other trees to fill the rest of the gap. The bottom of the plants would be completely shaded all day as it's against a north facing fence. Any ideas for trees that would be ok in that space, that wouldn't get too tall (I'd think max of 10m) and not too broad at the base, so it wouldn't eat up all our newly discovered space? I thought perhaps hazel or birch?

Any others that might work for this space?

Well done on getting your garden cleared - can you do mine?!

Not very good wrt trees/plants etc but from personal experience can suggest NOT putting conifers up. Their roots can grow very long, very thick and go under the foundation of your house (probably depending on what type of conifer - have no idea). I once rented a ground floor flat with garden and the massive conifer roots made it impossible to maintain the garden and this is with the garden being long with the conifers at the opposite end to the flat! Hopefully someone else can come along with possible ideas for you (I'm probably no help to you at all)!

Do you have a local garden centre that maybe you can look around? When we did our garden, we looked around our local garden centre and they had really helpful staff who were knowledgeable without the pushy selling. They listened to what we were after and now the plants we came away with are growing nicely in our garden.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

We've just planted hornbeam - which we were going to pleach but may just leave it to bush out. They keep their leaves in winter. Or for a modern twist bamboo?

PanpipeLady - we totally cheated and got someone else to do it... Neighbours on one side have just cut down a load of conifers that were blocking most of their light, so we def won't be adding any of those!

Chippychop - pleached is such a wonderful word! Hornbeam looks very nice, and would be good for narrow bases - will add that to the list

Hornbeam or beech would be nice. You can buy a pleached hedge on stilts from suppliers like Barchams although pricey! Laurel is another fast growing option or I've gone for Whitebeam (sorbus) trees which make lovely dense balls of greenery so good for privacy!

Birch are great for screening as they have lots of twiggy growth which gives some shelter in winter as well as summer (and may lose their leaves late as well).
They are also pretty trees to look at and most have beautiful bark.
Not idea if you want to plant underneath as they are shallow rooted, but ideal if you want height but not width.
Look at Barchams for info (but buy locally, ideally bare root in autumn).
www.barcham.co.uk/catalog/3408

I think Acacia pravissima is the perfect screening tree. Not too big, evergreen but wafty so it screens all year round without casting too much shade, and pretty yellow flowers in spring.

They are lovely Rhubarb but quite tender I think, there is a garden near me where they have lost two Acacias in the past few years.

Yes it's true they don't like cold winds. Fine in a southern, sheltered garden, possibly risky up north.