How to make open plant front garden less....open?

[Comps83]

So we bought a new build and as all new builds are these days we are quite restricted in what we can do to the outside of the house.
We have an open plan front garden, there are no paths on the road and the road is very narrow. Hence people use our garden as a thoroughfare when they can't wait 2 secs to let a car pass.
We've had the border plants replaced twice already . People just kick and trample on them (on purpose sometimes I'm convinced) and it just feels like an invasion of privacy to look up from the kitchen sink to see a gang of teenagers traipsing past your window. I've even found horse shit (!?!?) and have witnessed people let their dogs crap on it.
So anyway. We aren't allowed fences or hedges. Has anyone come up with a solution to making an open plan garden less inviting to people. If so have you got photos?
I'm thinking big bolders sunk into lawn (to stop the bikes etc) or a big thick rockery all the way round.

I would probably avoid making an actual path, in case in 20 years time you find it's become a presumed right of way, which might cause issues if you want to sell. But it would probably be a good idea to have a strip wide enough for people to step onto if they need to get out of the way of cars. perhaps large gravel (pieces about an inch large) might work, as ok but not inviting to walk on, and wouldn't be tempting to cyclists. Then have your border, with a mix of plants as per some of the suggestions.

hmm, I think I would plant a hedge type plant, and 'forget' to prune it, so it makes a low hedge, but not too low.

They had this on a development near my parents, huge expanses of grass in front of the houses that were somehow supposed to be communal space. Within 2 years peoepl had planted hedges in front of their houses, so that they had effectively adopted the grass in front of their house. As the back gardens were small, this gave them huge play areas for kids. In fact kids play equipment etc crept in too.

Would be interesting to see what the deeds actually say!

But in your case, I would plant bushes etc that grow quite large, and don't keep them pruned!

How about large rocks, heathers and low growing pricey bushes. This combination should be pretty indestructible and the heathers will give you colour in winter.

Prickly * not expensive bushes.

My sister had problems similar to this. Her builder (not the estate builder) had a suggestion and got around her deeds no fence statement by hammering in quite attractive square fence type posts at different heights staggered and a foot or two appart. She put gravel under and planted spikey plants cordelines and yuccas. Ten years on the original posts can barely be seen an the spikey plants have matured and filled the space.

That is genious flouncing

Perhaps one of those pit traps with spikes? They've only said you can't build UP, right?

It will either put them off after one or two have fallen to their doom or you will run out of neighbours. Job done.

We have a similar covenant in our deeds (no fences, solid hedging etc) and whilst we don't have a problem with people walking on it, we are right by a busy footpath and always felt like we were in a goldfish bowl plus I hate really sparse gardens.

I dug a wide curvy border & planted a variety of medium sized shrubs (including one of those thorny buggers, a hydrangea & a couple of unknowns I blagged on freecycle), added a small cherry blossom tree in the middle of the lawn & put some cheap edging until it was more established.

3 years on it not only looks fabulous but gives me a modicum of privacy. Happy to post a picture in the morning if you want the idea.

I think I would plant roses, and have them in individual circle beds all along the boundary. It would look so nice from the house when they're all in bloom!

How are developments being allowed to be built with no pavements?!

I'd just plant a hedge and be done with it.

Very few cul-de-sacs I've ever seen have pavements, palomb, which is what I assume this is, many new builds are.

I think it's terrible this thing about no pavements...pedestrians don't matter do they?

I'd plant a few specimen evergreens like Mahonia (beautiful but prickily leaves). I think the investment of buying larger plants will be worth it plus you want privacy don't you.

In smallish cul-de-sac configurations with no pavement, generally cars won't be going fast and the road should operate more as a shared space with cars giving way to pedestrians (and kids playing out!).

We had a culdesac new house where the road was block paved. There were no pavements, but the tarmac drives all had a line of bricks about a pavement's width in. That land and the area of lawn in line with it, looked like the houseowners' but it wasn't, it was in lieu of pavement.

Looking at the house opposite the OP's they have a paved path up to their front door, but it looks like the same kind of arrangement?

It also looks suspiciously like they have a hedge

I agree about the covenants, no one ever enforced the broken ones where we lived.

Yeah it sort of looks like a hedge from a distance I suppose but they are just lanky plants but even that I would have been much happier with than what we have got
We aren't in a cul de sac we are on the main drag!
It's just one of the things I didn't realise before we bought it
It's not helped by people parking in the road instead of their allocating parking
I'd be grateful of a photo thisgirlrides
There have been some fabulous ideas all round
I might have to get some paper out and try designing something

Well, if over the road can have lanky plants, so can you OP a hedge by any other name or, have you thought about digging a trench, lining it and filling it with water

thisgirlrides has a much better idea though really.

Or if not a partial moat, how about a haha?

We have similar restrictions, now 10 years on the builders are long gone and some rows of shrubs in front gardens have conveniently merged into hedges, quite by chance the neighbour on the corner plot who had problems with people cutting across her lawn as a short cut has a nifty hawthorn + beech hedge which has done the trick. As she said, if it gets queried she can always remove alternate ones so it's no longer a hedge, (it's not like building an extension without permission) but no one seems to care. Hedges direct do very cheap bare root hedge shrubs at the right time of year.

Laurel - keep it low and not too tight together

Grasses

Photinia

Hebe

Castor oil plant

I think whatever you put in need to be fairly established to stop them getting trampled

Can't see the logic in not having paths

For a very fast-growing plant that will make people unable to look into your windows, try corn.

Too late for this season, but if you still have the problem next year, you could try to grow little corn plants in the house in April and put them outside in May. (perhaps start earlier and have them grow larger so they aren't as easily damaged. Allegedly they can't be transplanted, but I have it seen done a couple times, with success) Some varieties get up to four metres high, and it grows very fast.

(However, you need to fertilize a lot. I tried growing corn in a badly fertilized garden, and it didn't work. All the animal feces in your garden can be put in the hole where you plant the corn)

You can then grow something like peas or beans between the corn, to fill the space between the stalks.

Long-term, I second roses. Very thorny roses.
I've also seen a front garden all overgrown with ivy inbetween the roses, that seems like something that would discourage people from walking on it.

You need to make your " border" ( not a hedge ) much wider and move it in bit.

So leave a strip of grass wide enough to get a lawn mover down, maybe about 1 meter. That's the " path " for pedestrians to step on if necessary.

Then clear a space for your border, it needs to be at least 1.5 meters wide. If you have plenty space I'd make 2 or 2.5 meters. Then plant with a range of plants as suggested above. Mostly shrubs with some perennials in between. You want fast growing easy shrubs with a variety of shapes and leaf colours and at least one third evergreen.

If you can tell me the conditions in your garden I can suggest some other shrubs for you. So is it sunny or shady , windy or sheltered. Where are you in the country ? If the soil sandy or clay ?

Once you have finished, put chipped bark down on every single bit of bare earth between the plants.

You will neee to water after you plants and then throughout this summer any time it's dry.

This will cost you time and effort . Stripping the grass from the area to be planted is very hard work . Stack the turf upside down in a corner someone behind a shed as it will make lovely soil once it's rotted down.

Plants will cost money.

But it will look lovely in a year or two and will keep people off your garden now.

Thanks people. I'm overwhelmed by the response . I'm just using a mobile at the moment so I'll have a good read through and reply once I get on a proper computer

Comps83 just thought I should add to what I typed before about a cul de sac with no pavements, but which had a block paved road. I think the strips at the end of our gardens had to remain in 'estate' possession even though they looked like part of our gardens, because the services were all laid there.

Also to add to my earlier post. If you were to go with the canal or moat option, solar dancing fountains would be good too

I'd just put in some huge planter things that would act like a fence/border. Surely nobody would act enforce this particular (very silly) rule?!

I'd also question why the plants keep dying. IME, it will be because the solid beneath is compacted and they can't put roots down. When you plant, be prepared to hack out a really big hole and backfill it with good stuff.

Good shrubs for that kind of space and yukkas and cordylines. The ones on my estate are thriving, sadly our space is much smaller! Also, we have a shrub with glossy green leaves, and white flowers which turn to black berries that does very well. No idea what it is, but it self seeds and spreads out nicely.