Advice on what tallish shrub/bush/tree to purchase

Good morning my fellow green fingered friends.

Our neighbours have decided to build a garden summer house which will overlook our garden at some point so what we'd like to do is just to retain some semblance of privacy is to perhaps grow something that will suit a semi shaded area (full shade in winter) and grow sufficiently tall to obtain this.

Any ideas would be gratefully welcome

Cheers all
Steve

 

Hello Steve. I've used a selection of shade tolerant evergreen shrubs with potentially tree like proportions to hide my neighbour's home office (shed!), including Thuja plicata, Bay laurel, Griselinia, Portuguese laurel and bamboo, arranged in a row, staggered in places. They are in an east facing border which gets morning sun until about 11am. These plants will grow in most soils but you'll need to be a bit patient!

There are also small trees like Amelanchier, Crab apple and Rowan which might work alone or in groups, depending on the size of the area you want to screen. Have a look at a specialist tree nursery's website and search for fastigiate trees which are tall and columnar and compare heights and spreads.

 

How about a pleached tree of some sort? Diabolically expensive if you buy one already shaped, but it wouldn't take too much depth in your garden. A house I see on a main road has a set of 3 that provide extra privacy above the front 4 ft wall, but don't intrude into the front garden area

 

Thanks for the info guys I'll give them all a good google