What to buy for screening

I am looking for some advice on what to plant to screen off a large area of garden. Myself and my next door neighbour would like to hide a house built at the bottom of our gardens. This sounds a bit manic but it is something that we want to do. The new property built a few years ago has now come into our view since the new owner has cut back most of the bushes that covered the new build house. There are windows and open space that look straight up our gardens, and we would like to grow some evergreen bush/plant to screen this off again.
The height would need to be around 6 foot tall and about 20 feet in length. I thought of building a fence type structure and covering this with garden net. We thought of training some Ivy or Mile a Minute to cover this frame work. The frame will not be close to the new house and will not cause any obstruction to the owners. This when grown will again screen the house from view.
Can anyone give me some comments on this plan or suggest an alternative plan.

 

Bamboo? (I have some, looks nice 90% of the year)

 

First off, having had russian vine (aka 'mile a minute') in a previous garden, I would strongly, strongly advise against it. It wont give you the desired result anyway. It takes a couple of years to get a good foothold, but once it does, then it is a nightmare. Once it's established, even if you keep on top of it, you'll go away for a week's holiday in the summer, and come back to find its invaded your flower beds and everything.

You say you only need it to 6ft high. That gives plenty of options. If you wanted to build your framework for a climber, instead of russian vine, how about just growing some beans? Ok, they're only annual, but you get the screening, and you get some free food

Alternatively, there are loads and loads of climbers that would be nicer and easier to manage than russian vine.

Personally, I wouldn't rely on climbers on a trellis to do the job. If space allows, I'd just grow some fast growing trees there.

A good option would be a willow 'fedge'. There is a hybrid willow that has been bred for its speed of growth. You buy poles of it dirt cheap and just shove them into the ground (literally push the ends of the sticks into the ground) and they root and grow. They'll put on between 4 to 6 ft per year. At this time of the year (bare root season) you could set that up for about £30. Just do a google search for 'willow fegde' or 'living willow structures'.

Another option is to go for something like buddleja. Buddleja, aka butterfly bush, so named because butterflies are attracted to the massive late summer blooms, will easily grow to 6ft in year 1, and 10ft plus from year 2 onwards.

As another option, but taking slightly longer, you could look at elderberry trees. They grow at a shocking rate, but not as fast as willow or buddleja. I have an ugly neighbour to screen off, and I've used elderberry trees and willow to do it. The elderberries went in as saplings about a year ago. They'd spent the whole of last year settling in, but I can see now they are just itching to take off as soon as spring comes.

There are lots of options. It depends on your preference, and how much space you have.

 

Ivy - bad plan! It will want to to go everywhere!

Bamboo - evil stuff! I can give you a load for nowt if you want, as we can't kill it off! I could even give you a clump with a load of the lawn attached!

Finding an evergreen climber could be a challenge too. Probably a selection of Clematis would do it, but I'm not really into them. Someone else could help though........

So my thoughts are to erect a frame using fence posts and wire (not trellis) to grow vigorous climbers on for a couple of years until some non-deciduous trees get established.

 

How about putting up some cheap reed screening or the like to block the view initially and planting a mixture of evergreen trees and shrubs in front of it; planted fairly close together as they mature it will give you a sort of informal hedge/barrier that will block out the neighbours view of your gardens.

Look at Portuguese Laurel, Viburnum Tinus, Mahonia, Holly, Privet (semi-evergreen), Evergreen Oak, Acuba, Elaeagnus, Photinia.....even an odd conifer mixed in (but not lleylandii).

Good Luck :thumb:

 

Laurel. ive a similar problem,but am going higher than 6 foot,im looking for 8 feet,so ive bought a tall laurel bush 6ft tall from a shrub nursery,and another 4ft
and planted these really close (looks like one bush) end of this year should get to at least seven feet.Cost me £35 for the two.Last week i planted a 7 foot
flowering cherry.and weekly am going to fill in with other deciduous shrubs till
fully planted. Doing this as against my local by-laws to exceed 6ft 6inches with more than one evergreen "if the neighbours light is blocked"
But at the height you are looking for,Laurel will give you the fastest results for a good gapless evergreen screen,and numerous growers of tall evergreens all over the uk......use google

ATB Howard

 

You could try hebe. They grow fairly quickly and if pruned properly while growing they become quite dense. They are evergreen too.

 

without seeing a photo, it is difficult to visualize .... but if it's only 20 feet long (6 meters long), and you need it at 6 foot high, perhaps look at planting 4-5 photinia red robin .... these can be bought fairly cheap at 6 feet high

can be trained into a hedge

 

I'll second that ... stay clear !