help with privacy planting

Hi all,

I'm at a stage where i really need some advice.

For the past 2 years I have been planting in my garden but don't seem to be creating the privacy that I want.

This picture shows you how overlooked my garden is at the back.

Picture

Although i've now planted a maple tree in the small semicircle next to the sunflowers, I don't know what to do about the rest. The climbing roses I planted to grow up the trellis you can see didn't really do what I'd hoped.

Any help much appreciated.

Regards
Dan

 

Climbing roses should be trained horizontally to get lots of blooms it looks like you need something that will give plenty of height you could try clematis montana

 

Hi Dan and welcome to GC
I'm new to this too, but I reckon a bamboo would be good there!! It would get tall enough to hide those windows and is easy maintenance.
I'm sure someone else will be along in a minute with some further suggestions :D :D

 

Are you just planning to cover the fence or do you want to go above the height of the fencew for privacy.

You will also have to decide if you want to plant for short term or long. If you are planning to stay there forever you should allow yourself more patience.

You could fill in with some fast growing anuals untill the rest of the stuff gets going.

 

another thought - why don't you aim to cover the fence and then create a private area within the garden where you could get out of the view of those upstairs windows

 

I would do what Waco suggests in the last post. I would think of stopping the garden being so open, by establishing some smaller areas, wheich could be shielded by use of things like bamboo. Those overlooking windows are so high it would take forever to get trees, etc tall enough to give you the privacy you want, but if you take a small area, and plant things like the bamboo or grasses, it doesn't have to be too tall for you to be able to sit in privacy.

 

That sounds good.

Since that photo was taken I have put a few bamboos along the back fence, but they will take a few years to get to the fence height i would think (only 2feet at moment).

What quick growing grasses / plants could I use to create one or two private areas?

Thanks

 

Other than the immediate thought of bamboos (which are good because they give the sort of shadw that a tree does, that is, not solid, more dappled....) it would be possible to put up trellis, which would give you instant privacy, and grow climbers up it. That would give time for other plants to mature.... just a thought! Must acmit, that's probably what I'd go for. Clematis, honeysuckle, jasmine, sweetpeas - all lovely plants, and some of them are scented - and if you chose a couple of the evergreen cultivars, that would be better still.

If you like that idea, we could give you some suggestions as to which of each of them might fit the colours you like. :D

 

Hi,

Appreciate your suggestion, but we think that trellis would make the existing 6ft fence just too high.

The other problem is my missus wants a large open area of lawn. I'm trying to convince her otherwise, and have managed to get permission to create a private area on the rhs. I'm planning to plant some shrub roses to form a informal hedge, with a bench in front. There are a couple of shrub roses i've seen that grow to 7ft and are described as 'vigorous'. How long do you think these will take to reach that height?

Regards

 

This may help - I have quite a large garden, Mr Waco does not like to have any white bits after sunbathing - if you get my point, so we created this very private part within the garden -



Out patio area may also be of help, it is again very priva\te, the bamboos in summer make a dense green hedge and hide the house on the hill.



Back to plants, I find budlea very fast growing and you can cut it back or chuck it when you have had enough of it or other stuff has matured, if you like I will send you some seedlings of my rampant thing. Also some of the shrubby loniceras - dendy may have to help with names, I have a red flowered one and fragransima. then like above post get some prppper climbers going - escilonia climbs if you make it and euonimus which would be evergreen.

 

Rosa rugosa is the best rose for hedging, Dan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugosa_Rose

This place sells it in packs of 20, as 2 year old plants. If you plant them at that size, they will take well and make a good thick hedge, but will take a few years to get to the height you want.

http://www.jparkers.co.uk/Index.cfm?fuseaction=product.standard&continueaction=category.search&search=rosa%20rugosa&producttype_id=48015

You can buy more mature plants to get a more instant effect, but that's much more expensive, and does tend to leave you with bare bits at the bottom of the hedge if you're not careful.


Waco's pictures show what I was meaning, Dan - using the trellis, no on the fence, but to screen off a private area, and planting climbers to give extra privacy. But if your other half wants to keep lawn, that won't work! :D

 

tp the left of my first picture I have f rosa rugosa that heve been there ages, mine have tended to flop rather than go up, however I have a glauca rose dont know name and it is very upright and fast to grow.

Think about sambuca too, there are some lovely black leaved ones, but of course not evergreen, they are fast though, and if they get too big you can just cut them back to base.

 

This must be the one you mean, I think, Waco - just called Rosa glauca usually, or rubrifolia.

http://images.google.com/images?q=rosa%20glauca&hl=en-GB&sourceid=gd&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2006-49,GGLD:en-GB&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

I've never seen any others with this sort of leaf. It's good for a hedge too, but nothing like as thorny as the rugosa (which could be an advantage within a garden! :rolleyes: :D )

Here's somewhere that sells it, Dan...

http://www.hedging.co.uk/acatalog/product_10290.html

Don't know anything about this site, just got it on googling, so can't recommend it. Maybe someone else can.

 

Rosa rugosa makes a great hedge with early strongly scented flowers. Rosa rubifolia and Rosa glauca are the same. Interesting bronze foliage, tiny single flowers and great hips. Not robust enough for a hedge though and wouldn't give privacy

 

Waco, yes i just got a sambuca black lace last year. Its only a foot tall but i'm hoping it will just take off next year. Ive also got a couple of salix shrubs which are supposed to grow quite quick.

I think i'm going to go for a rugosa, but ive been looking at the rugosa hybrids - how fast growing is Roseraie de l'hay? I really like the deep purple flowers. I think i might plant about 6 of these in a row.