This post is part of our privacy screening blog series
The garden, a safe haven from the outside world and an extension of the inside of our homes. Except it doesn’t always feel this way. Homes are being built more tightly packed than ever, and are so often overlooked, it can be difficult to fully relax in our gardens knowing a neighbour could pop their head over the fence for a chat at any time or prying eyes from overlooking windows.
In this article we’ll explain the different ways you can create a greater sense of privacy in your garden, along your boundary, or even within a smaller area of your garden.
We put it to the panel here at Emmet Foy, apart from the obvious demarcation of boundaries, we’re unanimous on the topic - it’s just not an effective solution for increasing garden privacy. Why? Stopping short of turning your back garden into a close-board compound, fencing is a blunt solution to what is in all honesty - a nice problem to have. When we erect large fences within our sightline we reduce the visual depth of our gardens, and flatten any sense of space and place the garden might have had. So that creosote soaked waney edge panel or feather edge fence you have enclosing your sanctuary could be doing your garden a disservice, whilst standing on its own at least.
That said - all is not lost - you may be asking yourself, well if I shouldn’t put up a taller fence or top it with a trellis, what can I do? Local planning may take a dim view of your efforts to put up tall fences - in the UK garden boundary fences can be a maximum of 2 metres or 6.5 feet including any trellis, though if you agree to a taller fence with your neighbour this is unlikely to be an issue. Otherwise you are left with, or rather gifted a planting opportunity, which we think is great, what could be better than a garden with more beautiful plants? Read on and we’ll cover the different ways to use plants and trees to create privacy in your garden. And when you’re done, we’ve got a free bonus guide with in-depth info on how to select and plant your ideal screening plants - or if you’re the impatient type - skip ahead and read it now.
A stone age solution to a modern problem. Originally adapted to contain livestock and protect crops, hedges are an important part of British countryside management and tradition. In the more urban setting countless homeowners in the UK have bet on hedges to draw the lines of their kingdoms - little or large - and add a little extra privacy to their gardens. Deciduous? Evergreen? Read on to find out more on hedges for privacy screening.
Pros
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Read: X of the best hedges to plant for privacy, with detailed pros and cons
A relatively more modern invention than the hedge - the pleached tree was in use across Western Europe from the late medieval times. Pleached trees are clear-stemmed trees trained to a flat plane to create a sort-of floating hedge, with clear visual space below. Historically used to create shaded paths and avenues in the grounds and gardens of stately homes, in recent times those of us with more modest swathes of land have taken to using the pleached tree as a boundary screening tree - for when you really need to blot out that new build estate they decided to plonk on your neighbouring field or the public footpath that gives militant ramblers a plain view of your entire rear elevation? No thanks.
Pros
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Read: X of the best pleached trees to plant for privacy screening, with detailed pros and cons
And now one of our favourite ways to screen - or perhaps more to ‘soften’ unwanted blots on the landscape - is to use carefully placed trees and shrubs to create the impression of privacy in key areas of the garden. This method is great if you have limited space or perhaps don’t want to screen the entire length of your boundary.
At home we’ve used a Morus Platanifolia a fruitless mulberry, arching gracefully over an outside dining area, which provides bright green, slightly figgy-leaved foliage from April right up to the first frosts. Conveniently, or perhaps on purpose it hides a distant neighbouring house from view, and covers the window of an adjoining neighbour onto the garden. That’s not to say I don’t like them and we don’t get along - we do - I just prefer to look at fresh leaves over PVC double glazing, right?
Other ways we can use trees and shrubs is to soften boundaries and back fences to create the impression of more depth than there actually is, enveloping you in lush green space in your garden. There are a few visual tricks you can use to accentuate depth in your garden - and they’re in our free guide here.
Pros
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X of the best trees and shrubs to plant for privacy, with detailed pros and cons
Another way we can create privacy within the boundaries to delineate an area of the garden, such as a distant patio-snug (grown-ups only) or if you don’t want or need to create a year-round permanent screen then this is a great way to add a new sense of space to an area of your garden.
One example springs to mind, a small design and plant we did for a front garden cottage in rural Buckinghamshire, the owner didn’t have a back garden to hide in, so the front patch would have to do - but - a public footpath runs right past the low picket fence of this rental property. To incorporate some privacy into the mix we suggested to the client that a herbaceous screen to be cut down each year would do just the trick, allowing the client to enjoy her garden during summer without feeling fully closed in, but putting up enough of a barrier to say “No, thank you!” to would-be conversation-striking walkers from approaching their boundary, yet again.
The plant was Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’, a suitably yellow warning barrier.
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