Garden screening question

[blindmelon123]

Hello all

We’ve just moved into a house that has a block of flats behind. These are partially screened by huge (20+ft) leylandii and conifers in our garden, but there are big gaps in parts that leave our garden overlooked.

So we would like to add more screening at around 8-10ft high in the form of more trees to fill the gaps but have been told we are unable to plant them in the gap we have behind the fence and a summer house that also sits behind the fence.

Just wondering what our options for screening at this height might be - we just had a tree surgeon look at them and suggested we could put up a suspended trellis inside the boundary of our fence but would that be permitted if it exceeded 6ft?

Also wondering if the leylandii may have been permitted for screening purposes when the flats were built (our house is over 100 years old the flats are probably 40 years old), in which case it might be permitted to add more screening?

Anyway, thoughts welcome!

Why can't you plant in between?
pots with bamboo? they will grow thicker & taller

We asked a few nurseries and they said the gap isn’t big enough unfortunately. Yes bamboo in pots could be an option but light is quite limited there - not sure how much light they need?

Bamboo will grow anywhere as long as the ground is not waterlogged. We have both clumping and a big screen of running and it’s great.

Thank you, will it grow tall in pots? Or can it be planted with relatively little root space? We need it to grow around 10 ft!

It depends on the type of bamboo you buy, we have some in pots and are only about 5ft tall, butthe screen in the ground is about 12-15 ft, it all depends on the type. I’ve seen 8ft plus in pots/ troughs online so yes it’s should be no problem, just make sure you get the right one 👍

Just be careful with running bamboo - it should only be planted in pots or if in soil then with something to contain the roots - otherwise it will spread and cause all sorts of problems for you and your neighbours.

That’s only if you don’t look after it. The roots are very easy to control as bamboo likes to root close to the surface, a little bit of checking around it to chop of any stray roots a couple of times a year and it’s fine.

Maintaining running bamboo mixed in with 20ft+ leylandii (also needs maintaining!!) sounds like a nightmare to me!!! I doubt you’d be able to dig to get proper root barriers in with the leylandii roots already there.

What’s the aspect? I’d also be a bit wary of essentially just creating a massive wall at the end of your garden, there are better ways to achieve privacy without such dominating features. 20ft is absolutely massive already, and leylandii can grow 3-4ft a year, need frequent trimming to keep under control or you’ll end up with 50ft monsters and an order from the council to get rid under antisocial behaviour legislation. Personally I’d be seriously considering getting rid of them and doing something cleverer for screening, or at least reducing them to around 3m/10ft and really strictly maintaining them at that height.

My understanding is that suspended trellis screening can be 2.5m/8ft tall even just inside your boundary fence, same rules as a pergola/garden building. If it’s more than 2.5m inside your boundary it can go up to a pitch of 4m (eaves of 2.5m).

Take some time to think really carefully which angles need screening, what the lines of sight are, where in the garden you will sit that you don’t want to be seen etc.

www.themiddlesizedgarden.co.uk/new-directions-in-garden-privacy-screens/

Thank you @LemonViolet that’s helpful to know re the roots - that’s what we suspected and were told by the nursery when we asked about new planting. It’s all a bit of a mess down there to be honest! It’s a north west aspect.

The leylandii are already monsters but I suspect they were permitted as screening when the flats were built (council owned) as the entire row of houses have them behind, ours just happen to be a bit gappy, and the previous owner added a summer house and shed just in front of them, which restricts new planting. If we had the budget we would take the buildings away, sort the leylandii/add some new mature trees to screen the gappy bits, then build a new garden studio in front, but unfortunately we will have to wait for a few years before we can do that.

That’s interesting about suspended trellis does it have to be temporary to be considered trellis? I love the look of the suspended horizontal fencing/trellis towards the bottom of the article you posted.

The picture attached should give you some idea of the size of the trees! We have a tree surgeon coming to tidy them up and wire some parts together to give a little more coverage but the biggest part that needs screening is to the right of the picture. You can’t see from this angle but the building is very close and directly behind the trees. I wonder if some suspended trellis behind the buildings just at the level we can see the flats from our seating area would work?

Here’s a bit of picture ( not great ) but it gives an idea of the type of screen . It’s very easy to maintain . The previous owners who planted it didn’t put a root barrier in but it’s been fine without it .

I would say it’s a lot easier to maintain than leylandi , the only real hassle is the amount of leaves it drops .

Oh fab thanks, that gives great coverage and much less imposing than our monster trees!

There is a 6 ft fence behind it as well that needs replacing, I will thin it out a bit when the fence comes down as it will be easier to do then.

The thing is with bamboo is you can maintain it yourself, where as the large leylandii will need to done professionally and can cost quite a bit.