Looks like long, hot summers are here to stay, and with them comes the opportunity to spend more time al fresco. But if you are lucky enough to have an outside space, it’s often tricky to find some privacy in our built-up environment.
Set Your Boundaries
Consider your boundaries first. It’s tempting to erect high fences or evergreen shrubs, but this can block out the light and create an overbearing and confined environment. By using 6ft fence panels topped with an 18” trellis panel, you won’t be visible to your neighbours at ground level, while still maintaining a sense of space. By planting climbers along the length of the fence, they will gradually cover the trellis and provide a living wall. Star jasmine, or Trachelospermum jasminoides, will clothe a fence with shiny, evergreen foliage, producing white, star-like flowers throughout the summer, with a fragrance to knock your socks off. Semi-evergreen chartreuse Jasmine Fiona Sunrise will cover your fence in no time and reflect the sunlight into your garden.
If the bottom of your garden backs onto unsightly, tall buildings, think about planting a small tree to screen them off. Magnolia Stellata is a slow-growing medium-sized, deciduous tree, reaching about 2.5m tall by up to 4m wide, which has beautiful white star-like flowers in spring. Ornamental cherry trees are popular for their stunning spring blossom. Kojo-no-May reaches about 2.5m tall, while Amanogawa forms a narrow flagpole shape, growing to 4.5m tall by 2m wide. If you’re looking for evergreen cover, then Photinia Red Robin can be grown into a dense, standard tree. Reaching up to 6m tall with glossy green leaves, it produces bright red new leaves in spring.
Hedge Your Bets
We’ve all heard horror stories about disputes between neighbours over sky-high Leylandii hedges. Leylandii hedges can grow up to 3ft per year, and if left unmanaged, can reach towering heights of 100ft, isolating you and blocking out your light like Sleeping Beauty’s towering hedge. But there are some beautiful shrubs that will define your perimeters as well as framing your borders and paths.
Evergreen stalwart, Privet, will give you a neat, traditional oblong hedge, which can be kept in shape by pruning about three times a year, taking care to avoid disturbing nesting birds. Ideal for a small-town garden, you can determine the height, width, and shape to suit your space.
Beech makes a fantastic hedge; although deciduous, its leaves turn copper in autumn and cling to the stems until new growth comes through in spring. In rural settings, create a living boundary with a mixed hedge, which will blend into the countryside landscape.
Hawthorn, blackthorn, and hazel offer seasonal colour, strong security, and vital habitat for local wildlife.
Then there is pleaching, commonly known as hedges on stilts. A pleached hedge is an elevated screen of trees, often hornbeam or lime, featuring bare lower stems and a flat, interwoven upper canopy trained along a formal oblong framework. Pleaching will screen you from neighbours’ upstairs windows, without taking up space at ground level, whilst a fence installed behind the stems will provide security and privacy in your garden. White birch, or Betula utilis var. jacquemontii, makes an airy pleached hedge, and a coloured fence will set off its striking stark-white bark.
Identify Your Sight Lines
Which parts of your garden are the most overlooked? Focus on blocking the view to these areas the most. Garden zoning or screening is key here. Consider where you want to place a seating area. Most of us have patios adjacent to the house, which are overlooked by neighbours’ upstairs windows. So, it may be worth adding a pergola or canopy to lead on from your back door. A pergola will provide screening without blocking out the sun. Planting climbers will soften the look, as well as surrounding you with fragrance and colour.
Seated seclusion
If the back of your garden catches the evening sun but is exposed on all sides, consider installing trellis panels, a wooden archway or arbour, to create a private dining area, whilst still letting in light and air. Or, for maximum privacy, install a garden shelter, framed on three sides with a roof.
Alternatively, surround the area with open, airy plants. Bamboo, if planted in large troughs to restrict its growth, will create a living screen. Small multistemmed trees, such as amelanchia lamarkii, will produce much the same effect without making you feel hemmed in.
Digging down to create a lower level in your garden could maximise the privacy levels. If lowering the ground is not an option, consider low garden furniture to shield you from onlookers and create a cosy space.
The Sound of Silence
The sound of suburban living does require a certain level of tolerance, but it can be intrusive when you are trying to relax in your garden. Children playing, distant traffic, close voices, barbecue parties are all part of modern living. Using running water to block out garden noise through acoustic masking acts much like a white noise machine. Choosing the right water feature is key. Quiet talking disappears under the sound of a gentle bubble fountain, whilst a tiered, cascading fountain or rain curtain will produce a solid sheet of sound that blankets louder noises. Place the water feature midway between where you sit and the loud property line, for the most effective result.
If you have severe noise issues, like busy roads, it may be worth investing in acoustic fencing. Typically made from dense materials like thick timber, acoustic fencing is a heavy-duty, tightly sealed barrier, which is designed to block and absorb environmental noise. But it doesn’t come cheap.
A Living Screen
Planting tall ornamental grasses in front of a fence or trellis will create a living screen as well as producing a swishing sound in the breeze. Miscanthus sinensis, or Zebra Grass, reaches 6- 8 ft tall, forming a mass of upright clumps with coppery tassels from late summer well into autumn.
Calamagrostis Karl Forster, or Red Feather Grass, grows up to 5ft tall, handles heavy clay soils and narrow spaces with a tight vertical habit. Stipa Gigantea, or Golden Oat Grass, towers up to 7ft tall, with airy, see-through golden flower panicles on long wands.
All of these grasses will transform into flaxen autumn colour, holding their structure right through the winter, until they can be cut down in March before new growth emerges from the base.
