My garden view is ugly... and my garden needs some work, too. Any advice? (Pictures)

[Gardenimprovement6]

My urban garden is very overlooked (picture 1 is the view from my living room) and my garden is quite neglected, too.

Any advice on how to improve the view? And the garden in general? It isn’t very relaxing being out there as it is.

I thought about a slanted pergola, rising at an angle from the fence, but that might be prohibitively expensive.

We can’t plant above the fence line as we’d block the light of the flats directly (!) behind.

What would you do...?

Screening and planting along the fence would be good, but you could put a screen of some sort nearer towards your patio. Something like vertical poles or other uprights. You could stagger them so you can see through to the rest of the garden. Possibly a grow climbing rose along them.

The screening sounds good - but do you have any stock picture links so I can see what you mean by the patio? Thank you though! My gardening knowledge isn’t great!

Are you being kind and deciding that you can't plant above the fence line and block the flats light - or is there something actually prohibiting it?

You could plant something wispy against the fence. Enough to blur the view but not enough to cast too much shade in the neighbour's garden.. A tamarisk, viburnum, flowering cherry. Do check the ultimate height before planting!

You could also put something striking elsewhere in the garden, to distract the eye away from the fence and the neighbours. Maybe something in the foreground. Or a path which leads the eye to a focal point.

You could paint the fence a sage green colour. Then you could buy some large bright pink plastic plant tubs from b &q and put a tall Bamboo in each one and space 4 or 5 in front of the fence.

The wooden raised bed front left could be painted another bright colour to distract you from the flats behind and you could plant a succession of colourful flowers. Start with some flowering bulbs, whatever you can get your hands on then follow with summer bedding plants.

Hi Garden
My description of screening the patio wasn’t very clear, sorry. But I was thinking of something along these lines, maybe made out of fencing poles.

Don't plant trees on the boundary. It's really selfish. I know you've said you are not going to.

I would consider some trellis above the fence line though.

Screening the patio is a great idea. I'd use trellis and climbers.

I was also thinking tall bamboos in pots - to screen without blocking all light. But wondered if there is an actual prohibition on plants taller than the fence.

Have a look on Pinterest for pergola ideas, that would give you some privacy and a pleasant space to enjoy.

I'm looking at bamboo for screening as well. Good luck!

I think it looks like a great space. Being a total towny it looks big to me!

Many years ago we had a garden on a roof terrace overlooked by massive blocks of flats. It was lovely, but VERY overlooked. We got long planters made up from decking. A bit like this planter made from decking. I then bought bamboo plants like these hedging bamboo plants and divided them into the planters. I had to saw them in half to divide the roots. They grew into a hedge especially when kept to a uniform height and worked extremely well. It saved us literally £100s. They're still in there three gardens later, but a bit redundant and neglected now. They can't be planted out in the garden as they're very invasive and can totally take over.

Totally agree about not planting trees right next to the wall if it will block light, but it might be welcomed by your neighbours. Also a vigorous climber might help to draw attention away from the rest of the view.

Thank you everyone! I am not green-fingered in the slightest, but it is a big(ish) garden for the neighbourhood I’m in (about 30ftx20ft). Everything has died in winter, and now all I see when I look out there is the buildings. Definitely looking for something to distract my eye.

It’s especially neglected out there as there are building works going on next door, so it’s dusty and unpleasant.

But I want to sort the garden so it’ll be both nice for summer and so we can eventually sell!

I really like the idea of hedging bamboo. Would you put those along the fence line?

I also think screening the patio sounds lovely. Do you think it’ll make the garden look smaller as you look out the window though?

A pergola is my dream, but I can’t afford to spend much on it. If I could find a way to make that work in my (almost non existent) budget, I would love to do it.

I’m also very tempted to paint the fence green like one of you suggested. That sounds lovely! Would it be strange to only paint the back fence though? Harder to get to the sides as they actually have successful plants along them!

We painted our side of our fences blue and it looks really fab.

the problem is that there's nothing in the garden to focus on so the eye immediately goes to the houses at the back. Agree with the bamboo screening idea, but also suggest some evergreen shrubs closer to the house which will distract, also paining the fencing a different colour, and bringing that in closer to the house will also help

Pleached trees can create a beautiful screen.