Help me decide on trees and placement? Pic included.

[Totreeornottotree]

Hi everyone. I'm desperately in need of some help in making a decision on our garden.

We've been here nearly two years and have made some progress with our garden but plan to get a lot more work done in the next few months. The problem we have (as you can see) is we're massively overlooked from the back. The house wasn't built when we bought and looked much further away on the plans, we also didn't realise it would be built on a slight incline.

So in the middle of our back fence there is a Bramley Apple tree planted recently by the builders. I'd like to move this across to the right hand side before it settles, and choose a different tree for the centre.

My list currently includes;
Magnolia Grandiflora
Arbutus Unedo (strawberry tree)
Pink Photinia
Lucas Horbeam

Height wise we wouldn't want anything which grows higher than the house behind, but obviously high enough to provide us with a more private garden.

I have dreams of the trees casting gorgeous dappled shade across the back of the garden while we sit on the patio with the kiddies 🥺

Super modern garden isn't my style, I'd say we're edging towards a more contemporary style cottage/traditional garden.

In OP picture it looks to me like the neighbours house is very close to the boundary. The fence would be claustrophobicially close to any downstairs windows on their side, regardless of what OP planted, and the gap between house and fence looks more like itd be a narrow passageway. Could be a trick of the angle but thats how I imagine it from the picture.

Obviously if she planted Laylandii or a sycamore or whatever thatd be ridiculous and anti-social.

Try and get to a local stately home, botanic garden or arboretum where you can see what the grown trees look like. It’s difficult to imagine from a 6ft stick

Yeah you're kind of right . I'd say between the fence and their house they have about 3m in the middle tapering off to 5m on the right hand side, but their garden is L shaped and the larger part of the garden is where I've circled here. This is also the part of their garden when they get sunlight etc so we don't envisage us changing the tree from the bramley that's already to be a problem

Kicking myself that I didn't take better photos of the large photonias in the background (not the little red robins) or the Portuguese laurel but these are the magnolias. What do we think? Too big?

The photinia pink marble were also very pretty and seemed a good size.

There have been some great threads about trees in smaller gardens over the last few years - will see if I can find the one I started and share that. I ended up with an amerlanchier and a smaller silver birch variety called Trinity (I got a multi stem). Only a few years in but all good so far.

Better quality photo

This is the thread I was thinking of - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/4246171-trees-in-small-gardens

This is good advice.

@GameOfJones @owlsinthedaylight it is a new build but many of the trees already planted by the builders exceed 3.5m. I'll double check just in case though thank you

I hadnt realised neighbour was 3 or 5 metres from boundary fence. Thats a fair amount.

Hiding an entire house in greenery will make your own garden dark. A bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

My choice would be to decide what job you want the big plants to do, then find o e that should do that job.

EG if you had a weeping birch over the patio, you have dappled shade to sit under and privacy from above. New leaves in spring, yellowy autumn colour, summer shade, and in the winter you have cloudy purply twigs. A good shape year round. The tree itself is never "wow" but it does a job well. Whereas, an evergreen magnolia will be amazing in flower...but will take a decade to look established and be dull for 11 months of the year. Thats a huge investment in space.

I hadnt realised neighbour was 3 or 5 metres from boundary fence. Thats a fair amount.

what? If neighbours house is 3-5 metres from boundary fence that’s extremely close and means they have a very small garden. Any trees planted as long the OPs back boundary will have a massive impact on light levels in the neighbours house unless this is a typo.

I think the magnolia will be overbearing in that space. The net curtain effect might work better. So smaller evergreens and deciduous trees that create a dappled effect.

I agree with this that if you have too many trees then you may restrict your own light, or forever have a patio area covered in bird poo.

By all means, plant a few trees to give the garden interest and structure. You could also think about adding something like a Pergola that will give you a designated seating area that you could either screen off with panels or train plants to go up and over to give you the privacy you want when sitting outside. A bit like these:

This photo might show better. Their garden isn't really tiny, they have plenty of space and light. Whatever we plant will cast some shade granted, but as you can see from the path of light and the compass points that would be limited in how it affects them. It would be very early morning light in summer and only across one corner of their garden.

We're really not trying to be selfish 😊 and I'm sure they will appreciate the privacy just as much as we will.

Thanks everyone for the thoughts, I an in two minds about the magnolia but definitely still want something ever green.

We have the camellia left corner, and will have our little bramley apple on the right. Then whatever we choose in the middle hopefully 🤞🏻

A basic mock up of my plan 😅

That looks lovely.

Looks great - did you use a software package to do the plan?

Just a freebie web based programme! https://my-garden.gardena.com/uk

Have you considered Eleagnus?
Evergreen but have some small flowers and berries depending on the season

It's a shrub but you can get them in a Standard or half standard - we have a few across our back fence for screening

Californian lilac would smell lovely and is a really pretty color too

Ornamental pear tree could work too

@jackstini I've actually been looking at lilacs this afternoon! They're so so pretty.

Ornamental pear was on my list as the perfect size etc until I read online that when they bloom they smell of semen 🥲😂 it shattered my dream completely.

There are a few shrubs/trees out there that smell similarly. It's what put me off planting a photinia red robin in my garden.....they stink! 😂

Have you considered a cotoneaster cornubia? They are semi-evergreen (they keep most of their leaves in all but the coldest winters), have flowers, then berries and the leaves turn a lovely colour in the winter. Ours has grown very quickly since planting a year ago.

Oh no I didn't know photinias stink too 😂I'll cross that off the list then thanks for the heads up.

I'll check out the cotoneaster definitely thank you for the suggestions. Good to hear it's grown well for you too!

Just had a 'spat my tea out' moment there! 🤣

I have a photinia red robin, it's grown as a shrub though, not a tree. I've never noticed that it smells of anything. I would recommend photinia for the simple reason that I've not managed to kill mine, it tolerates whatever pruning you want to give it or not, has lovely red new foliage in spring and summer (and whenever you cut it back) and the evergreen leaves are handsome too.