Lost a tree in the storms and now very overlooked.

[Rainbowshit]

Our garden has gone from very private to in full view of a block of flats due to a tree coming down in the recent storms.

What's the cheapest and quickest way to regain our privacy please? Need to buy a quick growing tree that's already fairly mature but it's so expensive.

Please don't get Leylandii !

Would a pleached tree of some sort work?

Agree with avoiding leylandii, they are a nightmare, and blow down easily as well.

Perhaps what you could do in the meantime is put some sort of ornament, pergola or similar in the garden to create a focal point. Although it wouldn't screen the other residents from looking into your garden, it would take your eye away from the view while a replacement tree thickens up.

Bamboo in pots ? Although I think a pergola is a quick solution. If you’re over looked by windows then sitting under an umbrella would screen you from them when you want to sit in the garden.

What sort of size space? What tree did you have before?

What height and type of tree are you replacing?

Bamboo is a great shout @Cuppa2sugars it grows soooo quick.

If you’re concerned about being overlooked in your home or on your patio then you could use smaller trees closer to your house. Something like an Amelanchier Lamarkii or maybe pay for pleached trees with some height.

We've just cut down about 15-18 foot of bamboo - it was an absolute nightmare and has spread to our neighbours garden. It grows incredibly quickly and really takes over. I wouldn't recommend.

We are now also quite overlooked and we are looking at replacing the bamboo with pleached red robins - they seem to do the job without blocking out all of the light.

GL

Get a 12 foot lyendia tree and within couple f years it will hide the ugly block of flats. Keep tree in trim every 2/3 years

Lyendia??

you don’t mean leylandii do you?

Thank you everyone. I hadn't heard of pleached trees before so I think they may be the answer.

Or we have prunus caucasica grown as a sort of elevated hedge to screen an unsightly view down one of our boundaries — not pleached, but bought as 12 foot trees with long, thin trunks and a thick crown of foliage, planted close enough so that they already screen, but will eventually grown/be pruned into a full ‘hedge’ on long trunks.

Do you mind me asking about the cost of these?

We've used pyrus calleryana Chanticleer as an elevated hedge - they are deciduous, but very early into leaf (with pretty white blossom) and late to drop. Significantly cheaper to buy than evergreens if you're on a budget.

Not at all, but we’re not in the UK, so it may not be much help. We paid €200 per tree about 2 years ago. Expensive, but they’ve done exactly what we needed, have thickened up, have been hardy through droughts, and survived (firmly staked) very windy conditions (we are somewhere high and exposed) — and the long trunks means a lovely old stone wall behind is still visible.

You may find them cheaper — where we are, a lot of tree suppliers had their stock decimated by a big storm a few years back, and surviving stock got more expensive.

of course i do.