Replacing several trees with what? Help!

[Justwanttoweeinpeace]

Due to problems with subsidence we need to remove all the large trees and bushes within a metre of our house.
It's going to leave us with some fairly substantial holes in the garden, including a two metre wide gap between us and the neighbour, who will lose a bit of privacy,

If we don't get rid of the trees / bushes we'll have big problems with the insurance company and all the cracks in our house will only get worse.

We get on well with them but we want to put something in the space ASAP to fill it in. We can't use anything that will put down deep roots and suck out all the water under the house, which is why we have subsidence in the first place.

I'm looking for trees that we can put in big pots, or anything that doesn't have a big thirsty root system.

We are prepared to spend a bit of money to get it right, but he have no idea what to buy.

Any help would be massively appreciated! TIA

A latticework bower, so you can sit with your back to the neighbours and drink a cup of tea from the shelter of your bower, even in Winter.

Just dreaming, I don’t even have a garden...

Herbs? My lavender is around 4ft round and the rosemary isnt far off. Theyre Mediterranean plants so dont need much water and their roots arent deep.

Aaaaah!

Fence with a trellis top, with climbers?

Heck, I wish I'd taken a picture and I'm not there to do it now.

It needs to be a tree or a bush. Our houses are at right angles to each other and the laurel we are removing stops us looking in on their living room from our bedroom, which is by the front door. It's all at the front of the house so as lovely as the big seats are, that won't work.

I do have two or three spots that it would look lovely in though so I might get one for the back or the side of the garden.

Acers grow well in large containers:

www.rhsplants.co.uk/search/_/search.acers-for-containers/sort.0/

Bamboo. Just pick one that doesn't go mad. We have a couple of clumps of black bamboo for screening

Or bamboo in a container to be on the safe side.

Escaped bamboo is an absolute bastard.

Bamboo in pots. TBH I don’t much like bamboo but lots of other people do.

I like copper beech or silver birch in pots.

You can also grow leylandii in pots. It’s fast growing and cheap. You could keep it in check.

How about going to your local garden centre/DIY superstore and seeing what they have in.

If you do pots it might be worth getting an automatic watering system. They are cheap and easy to set up and will mean that there will be less risk of the trees dying because you’ve forgotten to water them.

Bamboo makes the loveliest noise in the breeze.

Email Barcham Trees saying what you have said here. They are really helpful and knowledgeable. There range of trees is amazing.