Trees to help with being overlooked

[Maybenexttime08]

So we are moving into a new build property which as with lots of these properties is quite overlooked.

We are doing the garden from scratch and want to plant some trees at the back fence that will help form a barrier. We've heard of the word 'pleaching' but not really sure what this means.

Can any of you experienced gardeners suggest what trees would be best to plant? I presume something evergreen?

Many thanks!

A really food place to start your research is Barcham Trees website. Don’t be put off by the price. They sell really mature large trees and you can buy the same ones cheaper.

Their website is an encyclopaedia and really easy to follow. They are also willing to answer questions and make recommendations if you email them.

Pleached trees are expensive. They are grown and trained for many years by taking out the lower branches then training the lateral ones on a construction

How big is the garden/how far away are the other houses? That's one of the biggest considerations so you don't end up with a tree that in a few yeara is the size you want but ends up being far too big for the space allocated once it reaches maturity. Presumably you also want to be able to use your garden/not block out all sun etc so what you choose could have a positive or negative impact on this.

If the garden is fairly long you can break up the line of sight with fencing, trellis, smaller trees and shrubs so that you can achieve a feeling of greater privacy.

Elaeagnus are apparently good for pleaching and grow very fast. They also smell divine when they flower, and small ones can be got very cheap from hedging suppliers.

Many thanks for your help! Our garden is 12 m long and the house behind it is another 12 m I guess. It is West facing so they won't block the sun as the neighbours house will do that :-)

We don't want trees that are going to grow too big, but it would be nice if they grew 1 -2 metres above the fence (but had relatively think trunks).

Someone mentioned a Cherry Laurel? Would they work?

@FLOrenze thanks for the recommendation on the website - I will take a look!

We won't go down the full 'pleaching' I don't think - but need to plant enough of them close enough so that we don't have massive gaps.

At that height I think you'd be looking at tall hedging if you wanted evergreen as opposed to trees, particularly if you want the "trunks" to remain thin. If you don't need it to be evergreen you could try beech or hornbeam, depending on conditions, which can be easily shaped to a hedge at a suitable height and will hold on to their dead leaves if pruned at the right time until the new leaves grow through. You have a lot more options if non evergreen, there are lots of smaller crab apple varieties, or some ornamental cherries, things like rowan or other sorbus may work, although they would mostly grow much taller than 4 m over time. You could also grow a selection of fruit trees which would provide greater interest and many can be kept to a desired height of around 10-12 foot. At that distance away, if your house is west facing, you should get a good amount of sun without their house shading your garden however if you plan to keep things at a height of around 4 m, you should still get plenty of sun anyway.

We have a vast cherry Laurel in our garden which, when we bought our house over 20 years ago , had already been fashioned into a large tree, like a lollipop.

Yes it affords privacy but all parts of this plant are poisonous and the 'cherries' are numerous. If we don't keep on top of sweeping them up , our dog tries to eat them or they burst and stain our patio when you tread on them.

The leaves drop prolifically and it's a real pain.
You'll need to make sure that young children don't try to eat the berries.
They seed everywhere and we have to get gardeners/tree surgeons in regularly as it's too much for us to cope with.

Wish we'd removed it years ago but it really does afford privacy and it attracts so many birds who nest in it. Bats seem to like it too!

Evergreens are often slow growing, and those that are fast need trimming a lot.

There are some evergreen shrubs that can be grown into trees, like Berberis. I love the blossom and berries but the leaves are very spiky. Also Holly would be good.
www.hedgesdirect.co.uk/acatalog/berberis-hedging.html

If you grow some deciduous trees you will still get some privacy in the winter from the twigs. It depends how much you want privacy in the summer garden and how much for Windows in the house in winter.

You can grow evergreen climbers like ivy through deciduous trees to add some winter privacy.

Conifers grow pretty fast but are an absolute pain to keep on top of in terms of keeping them under control.
We have a magnolia tree an acer and a buddliea at the back of our garden. I'm not sure how fast growing they are but they provide pretty good screening.

Thanks everyone.

Having done a bit more research I'm looking at a Japanese Privet - approx 8 ft?

Would that work do you think??