Ideas for high screening with plants/trees

[Madmog]

We're in the process of buying a house we love, although it's a bit overlooked by the property at the back. Suspect we can see more into their property than they'll be able to see into ours though. There is a 6ft fence between the properties and we'd like to plant something at the back in the way of plants which grow a big higher than 6ft as screening or perhaps put a tree or two in. We feel this might distract a little from the property behind.

how many metres away
what aspect
how many metres of fence

How tall do you need the screening to be and as Talk says how far is the fence from your house - and what direction does the border in front of the fence face?

Yes, but wait until you get there as you don't know enough about sunlight, soil, acidity etc to make a choice now.

Fruit trees if your soil will take it? Just 5 and you'll officially have an orchard. Less and you'll still have edible screening!

The fence will be about 9m away from our house (also the same distance the other side for the one behind).

The garden is on the north elevation, but will get a little sun on one side in the morning and then on the other late afternoon.

The present fence is 6m high, so something higher than this. Great if it goes all the way along (12m) but I think even a small tree or two would be beneficial. The soil in this area is clay by the way.

I'm just trying to get some ideas at the moment and might check one or two suggestions out in garden centres/online to get a real feel what would be suitable.

6m fence BLIMEY : check the planning permission for that ....

We ended up with an evergreen cotoneaster from here at the worst point and planted some deciduous trees as well for interest, my favourite is the pineapple broom which is lovely. To be honest though what worked best was splitting the garden up a bit, we put a raised border down to the half way point with 2 six ft trellis's facing the house and have filled the bed so your eyes are drawn to it rather than the houses beyond.

screening in summer is much easier than in winter, due to the leaves. I have some 3m hollies, which grew fairly easily, and Bay, which need regular pruning to keep them neat. You don't want something that will overhang onto your neighbours and annoy them.

Buddleia grows really fast and will get to the height you want within a year or two. You need to prune it really hard every Spring so it's not so tall for a bit each year. Eucalyptus might also work and grows really fast but you absolutely must prune that really hard every Spring or it will grow into a huge tree. Keep on top of the pruning though and it's a very attractive shrub.

Both of them like some sun but will manage if it's not all day.

I agree as well though that creating a focal point within the garden will help enormously.

Thanks for your replies. I will look into all of them. The garden presently only has grass and gravelled borders (with no plants) so is a complete blank canvas to do as little or as much as we want.

Talkinpeace, sorry I got my fence height wrong, it's 6ft not 6m!

PigletJohn - yes, your right we don't want something that overhangs the neighbours garden too much, we don't want to upset them right after we move in!

Portuguese laurel are very good for screening, they look good all year, nice shiny foliage, grow fairly quickly, are as tough as old boots but are easy to prune and not light sapping like leylandii.
You could use them with some lighter, softer deciduous planting.

Another option is to add trellis and evergreen climbers above the fence.