Garden privacy

[ItsFriyay]

The fence that runs between our garden and NDN is short and we can see into each other’s gardens. The fence belongs to NDN.

We want privacy in our garden and hate being overlooked like this.

Our garden is small, maybe 40 feet long but tiered. Was looking at retractable awnings but don’t think they would work as tiers are too short.

Thought of erecting our own fence alongside their fence but worried it could cause problems in future with boundary.

Or Laurel or privet hedge but have a dog so not sure if the berries are poisonous to dogs.

I know simple solution would be asking NDN to go halves on new higher fence, would benefit them too. But not keen to engage with them too much. And if we went half on new fence where do you stand with future maintenance?

TIA

You could build your own fence along your side of the boundary,

Start naked gardening and I'm sure they'll put a taller fence in unprompted!

@waitrosetrollydolly I think they would feel positively ill if we did that. Though maybe some naked trampolining wouldn’t be as bad as gardening!!

@sunshinesupermum I am seriously considering this. What I’m worried about though is if, for example, they took their fence down and grabbed a bit of our garden in the process.

Has anyone put a fence up parallel to NDN’s fence??

What I meant to say how would we maintain integrity of existing boundary??

Ask them if they are happy for you to nail some trellis to the top of the fence? Then grow a fast growing climber on the trellis.

Laurel grows fast and you’ll have good privacy quickly, but it continues to grow fast so you’d have to be committed to pruning it 1-2 times a year thereafter. How about some clumping bamboo? It’s not the invasive type. I’ve tried to create privacy with climbers up trellis but haven’t had very quick results.

Never ever have laurel in a small garden. It’s a total thug and when you trim it, you get ugly cut off stalks with no leaf cover. It’s just plain ugly and gets very wide. Your garden will diminish in front of you and growing anything under it is difficult. Don’t consider Leylandii either.

Your easier is solution for a quick fix it to have a fence totally on your own land. You can build 2m high without planning permission.

A far better hedge is beech or hornbeam. But you will have to wait for it to get to 6ft. Birds nest in them. Flowers grow under them and they need one trim a year. They can be kept quite slim.

I think your quick fix would be your own fence though.

I have a short cotswold wall and I can see straight into my neighbours garden it is listed So canny knock it down or build a fence I have put willow weave onto it, otherwise my kids would just climb over the wall 😂

How about your own posts just inside the line, with trellis attached, but only above the fence line. That way you can still reach the fence for maintenance.

Grow mile a minute clematis up each post, plus some evergreen climbers.

We put up a fence on our land to block out our own NDN. In our case it was a dilapidated fence running along the back of our garden and a panel fell down/fell apart, he refused to put up another. We were having other side of our garden fence done to match new fencing another neighbour on the side did.

We asked him to go halves, he refused. So we put up our own fence on our land abutting his fence. Has never been a problem.

Thank you everyone for your posts and ideas.

Will have a think about all the suggestions.
I like the idea of maybe attaching a trellis to top of fence if they are agreeable or trellis on a post on our side. @peapotter the idea of clematis sounds lovely.

Thanks @PresentingPercy for hedge tips. Pretty hopeless at gardening but suspected our garden would be too small for a laurel bush. I like the beech bush, I think my DM has one in her garden and it grows pretty quickly.
Thanks again all.

If you put your own fence up there is no gap between your fence and the neighbours so hardly a massive land grab

FIL lived on a 70's build estate where everyone had 3ft fences and everyone was all very neighbourly (all moved in when it was build in his street) he was quite put out when someone new a few houses down from him erected a 6ft fence blocking "his view" we could not stop laughing at him. He sat out there every morning since retirement with his newspaper facing sideways, not into his own garden but down the street.

Apparently the neighbour was also quite put out as he had refused to increase the fence height from 3ft, so the new chap just erected his own 6ft fence. He had no privacy as the low fences and massive 70s windows meant that people could see into the windows. Caused a right stir, if there had been a local facebook group it would have kicked off.

Putting in expensive posts just for a bit of trellis looks unsightly to me. You would have bare posts. If you do the posts, do the whole fence. It’s so much neater! Looks finished.

Beech hedge can easily be trimmed once a year to keep width and height in check. More wildlife friendly too.

Beech hedge looks ok in the summer ,but 6 months a year when the leaves are dead it looks shit. Laurel makes an excellent hedge if looks after properly, privet is my choice , easy to maintain , can be shaped easily , green all year , grows really quick in summer , and can be cut back hard if needs be without harming it. Its basically indestructible.

Bamboo is good for screening to, the running types are good for this and grow extremely fast and tall ( ours is about 12-15 foot ) just make sure you put root control barriers in to contain it in the area you want.

I did what @peapotter suggests in my previous garden, put posts next to the fencing and attached trellis which I then grew climbers along.

It worked really well, you get privacy and the boundary is maintained.

Just to add, my current garden had parallel fences, was awful as weeds, ivy and allsorts grew inbetween and you couldn't get there to weed and it eventually destroyed the fences.

My beech hedges don’t look shit in winter. I assume pp knows they don’t lose their leaves? The golden leaves stay on the hedge until spring. Then the birds start nesting in them. Nothing much would nest in laurel or privet. We live near to beech woods and any other hedge is utterly out of place.

Pleached trees look good if budget allows
www.externalworksindex.co.uk/entry/138927/Ladybrook-Nursery/Pleached-trees/

I agree with the above re beech. It is lovely all year round, it holds on to the orange leaves when in a hedge and requires minimal maintainence. It is so much nicer than laurel which is also poisonous and requires a lot of cutting.

They are not golden leaves, they are brown crispy dead leaves in winter , and dead leaves just look shit , I prefer a nice green hedge in winter.

I really like the look of beech leaves in winter. And it’s nice to have something with the fresh spring green of a deciduous tree, but with still some winter coverage.

They do take ages to grow though. We have 6ft trellis with evergreen honeysuckle on it - got them last year from a wholesaler so were already quite big and are starting to cover quite nicely with just one summer’s growth.

Oh dear. Chumleymouse doesn’t get it. Never mind. Laurels are not suitable. Pleaching is great if you have patience and attention to detail!

I can see there might be problems with back to back fencing but as the neighbours fence is short it might be less of an issue. Not all fences have to be wood.

Laurels make fantastic all year round (GREEN) hedging. But some people don’t get that, never mind.

Op a hedge or screen ( bamboo ) is an easier opinion than a fence. Fences require more maintenance, painting,renewing.

In your position with a smaller garden I’d go with bamboo for privacy they grow extremely fast , and will still let some light through, the only maintenance is cutting dead canes out now and again and picking dead leaves up. They stay green all year and also look great.

You just need to put the root barrier in place ( easier than putting a fence up ) and it will grow exactly where you want it, so you could grow it a foot wide by 40 foot long if you choose to .

Golden bamboo is a favourite of mine.
We inherited a large unkept clump when we moved in here , it’s green bamboo ( the canes go green in summer ) I’ve removed some of it but it’s still work in progress. It still gives good privacy and colour even in January.

Your bamboo looks great Chumley

You wait until bamboo is 6ft thick and you can hide a panda in it. Again not a native plant so be careful. I guess I have the luxury of a very big country garden. You won’t find laurel hedges in NGS gardens though. Bamboo is only suitable for huge gardens.