Screening between gardens

Hi.

Hope you can help. I have a run of approximately 30 feet of fencing between my garden and next doors. I would like to plant something in front of the fence that will eventually grown to of can be kept to around 6foot in height (nothing like leylandi). Evergreen would be a bonus. Thanks. Chris

 

to GC @Thekarter

It would be helpful (and save you money) if you could give us a general location of where you are. Also, again to give you the best advice, it would be very helpful to know which direction that fence faces (different shrubs like to face in certain directions e.g. North/South etc). One other thing members need to know to give you the very best recommendations would be the type of soil you would be planting the screening into: clay? Sandy?

To kick start you off though: Evergreen (and with pretty, small, flowers varieties ranging from palest to darkest pink) is Escallonia, a lovely shrub which will grow to about 6'
Photinia × fraseri ‘Red Robin’ is another evergreen and good hedging plant. The new growth has a lovely red leaf (older leaves are green).

The more you can tell us about the site you plan to plant in, the better suggestions you will get.

 

Hi. I am in North Yorkshire. The shrubs will face the sun for approximately two thirds of the day. Hope that helps. Soil is more clay than sand.

 

Welcome to the forum! I agree with @JWK clematis is a lovely perennial.

 

Hi. I would like to do slightly higher than the fence for a little more privacy

 

Osmanthus Burkwoodii is lovely
Alternatively Portuguese Laurel

Both are evergreen and fairly vigorous but easily maintained to the height you want.

Osmanthus has a proliferation of small highly scented flowers this time of year.

I tried Escallonia here in Manchester but they prefer the warmer climate down south or maybe it was copious amounts of rain that did for them.

 

Snap @merleworld re Escallonia and I'm putting my money on the problem being temperature. I grow the pale pink Escallonia but it "does" rather than flourish. The red flowered is more tender I found and the 1 I bought departed this earth!. I tend to grow various varieties of Wegelia as an alternative. Ok flowers earlier and not evergreen but cope better with cold.

 

I have 80ft of red Escallonia hedging here which gets battered by wind and rain every winter but it still looks good every summer.

Hebe is evergreen and makes good hedging too.

 

I'd go with the climbers group myself. Not only perennials, but how about a few perennials with annuals such as Sweet Peas growing through them.
Also, have you thought about the fact that by putting in a hedge you will also be reducing the size of your garden ?