screening ideas

[chippychop]

my neighbours side sitting room window looks on to the side of my garage but gives a good view across all of my garden. there is a fence and some young trees and a 6ft fence down the boundary line but this dips down to 4ft in front of their window. I am searching for some sort of ornamental fence/screen or planting to block their view into my garden and give me some privacy without blocking their light. Im thinking a curved beech hedge or bamboo or maybe an extra line of fencing. I need it to look pretty as my side kitchen window will look onto it. Any ideas welcomed

We have bamboo at the back. You can get non spreading varieties. It grows in very quickly and makes a lovely swishy sound in the breeze. It grows to a certain height and then no more. It is also evergreen.

How large is the gap? Can it be plugged by one plant (e.g. an ornamental tree - amelanchier? ornamental cherry), or will it need several things grouped together, in which case something like a hedge might be better? If so, what about pleaching the beech to give you more of a decorative effect and to preserve some of your light?

Do you need a complete screen, or is something that simply breaks up the visual line good enough? Would a wooden fence work (forget horrible conventional fence panels and Pinterest search 'garden screen' for some gorgeous contemporary examples made of things like cedar)? Lots of companies are getting into the laser-cut metal screen market now, too - some are more delicate than others.

Could you attach trellis to the 4ft fence section? I'm going to do similar with a couple of my panels this year. My posts aren't tall enough but it seems you can rectify this with fence post extenders.

I did similar last year with good results. I have a couple of climbers winding through it to give a bit of extra coverage. The section beside my patio had a roll of 5ft reed screen (£4 Home Bargains) wired onto it for extra privacy.

I'd love bamboo but I'm a bit nervous of it! I know you can get non-spreading varieties or keep it in a strong pot...

Hello thanks for your ideas I've decided on a row of privacy trellis that can run 6/8 ft in front of the the lower 4ft boundary fence behind it . To break it up I may have a garden seat/arbre thing in the middle then I can plant behind. I'm either going to plant climbing roses up the trellis and/or paint the trellis lots to do!

Glad you found a solution