Advice or ideas on narrow garden landscaping, partitioning and dealing with a raised patio

I'd have a look at the Agriframes site @Dan1981 , there might be something suitable there.

Garden Screens | Garden Privacy Screen

 

Thanks all.

I attach some up to date photos of the specific area we're talking about.

Apologies for the bricks, these are in the process of being cleared.

So options are a trellis screen.
A big trough planter sitting on the top of the wall.
Or some combination of both.

Also do you agree with moving the Pampas grass. It's competing with the Camelia for focal point and doesn't match very well. I don't particularly like it, think it's scruffy looking. But my partner likes it.

 

@Dan1981, This is what we've just had erected on our raised terrace. We had to have it made to measure as all the lengths were different but you can get the standard size of 6ft x 6ft as a readymade panel, about £120 from memory. The wood merchants sold my builder the individual slats, posts and special screws to build the privacy screens.

 

@Dan1981 - I've just looked through some photos from this year in my garden to illustrate teh sort of thing you could do in terms of screens.
This is my freestanding screen. It's changed since I first put it up, as it was more solid before, with just a small 'window' in the centre. I now have a Pyracantha being trained in the centre, and I used a container behind it with sweet peas for summer, to fit in with the clematis I have at each end. It's simply a post at each end, then a horizontal top and bottom, with roofing battens attached. The top is enclosed with timber which you can see more clearly in the next pic.


As I mentioned previously, there's a bed at each end too - 'cubes' of approx. 2 feet in each direction, with shrubs etc. Those are simply built around the posts at each end.


This is the newest addition - sorry I don't have more close ups. The pergola, which is basically a rectangular variation of that screen, which I did in spring this year. The previous pic is taken from that spot.


The raised bed you mention making would be fine as a base for a screen, but if you go down that route, make sure you attach the trellis or battening firmly to it, and also attach the raised bed properly, because if you put shrubs etc into it, and they get to a decent size, they'll become top heavy. Personally, I wouldn't attach the screening to the bed. I'd attach it to the patio itself.

You can also get good quality trellis which has a much denser construction, with holes which are only around an inch or so. I used that on my fences when I originally did the garden. It's expensive, but lasts longer, and provides a good screen even with no planting on it. I prefer the roofing battens though - a very inexpensive way to make screening.
Bear in mind that a raised bed requires a very large amount of material to fill it, and it has to be the right sort of thing, especially if you want shrubs in it. Don't use 'just compost' whatever you do - that's no use. You need mainly soil. It also has to be raised off the ground to allow for drainage. You could also put basic hedging in it - there's plenty of types which would suit and would be relatively easy for maintenance, but don't be tempted to buy large specimens. They require experience and more care to get them established. If they don't have that and they fail, it's an expensive mistake.
We're also in bare root season, which means hedging plants are cheaper. Most of the hedging suppliers do other shrubs too, so take a look at those. Hopes Grove Nursery and Hedges Direct are both good.

 

Thank you @lizzie27 and @fairygirl .

That screen looks great, Im just nervous about blocking out so much of the view. I know that's contradictory, given its the view Im trying to block. Its a bit scary putting up something that is going to screen things that much.

And @fairygirl your garden looks so 'full' of stuff, so much volume. Mine looks so bare, and scruffy. I don't know how to make it look full and not scruffy. We've tried things, for example that brick curved bed in my photo above has a rosemary growing up the wall, two jasmine climbers, and I re-did the brickwork myself because it was all broken. But it looks so rubbish.

 

@Dan1981 - it comes down to one simple choice. Either you want to screen the view of the flats or you want to see all of your own garden. With the set up you have, there really isn't another option.
If you screen just that one side, similar to @lizzie27 's set up or my suggestion, you can add enough planting on the other side to give privacy and interest, including some other pots or planters.
It's always easy to think people are looking at you, but those flats are a long way away, and unless you like 'sunbathing in the scud' [as we'd say up here!] and they have very impressive binoculars or a telescope, it's really not something to get worried about. It's also easy to end up filling your garden so full of large trees and plants to block something that it becomes dark and oppressive, rather than enjoyable. I do understand wanting privacy, but you have to be rational about it too.
The best option is still to remove a large part of that patio completely, and have the main patio at a lower level. That solves both problems, and planting can then be done to suit. You would also get help with making a cohesive design, but you have to make your mind up about what matters most to you.

 

@fairygirl it's not just about blocking the entire surroundings, although if I was completely surrounded by trees, at a distance that they weren't oppressive, of course that would be lovely.

But if my garden was more full, with height and depth, and screens in key places, then that would be fine.

It's the bareness plus the view at the moment that are compounding to make everything worse.

 

Forgot to add these - this is what the screen looked like when I started it in 2014. There was no garden here when we moved in in 2013 - just slabs and gravel, a shed and a few shrubs. I redid the boundary as there was just a little enclosed area, and then built raised beds etc for planting.


I had made a pond in front of the screen and also did a lawn. It's changed a bit over time, but you can see the raised beds and how the screen looked initially. Different colour too.

 

That looks fantastic @fairygirl, you are so clever with your hands.

@Dan1981, our screening gives an optical illusion. We opted for quite narrow slat spacing as we occasionally have dinner outside on the terrace, which is about 5-6ft higher than the road below which is used for parking the other side. We can see through the slats but you can't very well do that from the road side. The slat spacing can be varied if you make your own.

You can also get diagonal trellis with very small gaps as suggested which I think is attractive to look at with or without plants. You could try putting a panel of this up instead of your square one and see whether you like it or not. It could always be used somewhere else in the garden.

I think you need to take some time out as the project is obviously stressful, discuss it with your partner perhaps and then decide, as Fairygirl says, what is your primary objective.

 

I think I know what my objectives are.

* Patio - Screen the view from the patio and rear living room to the open development site beyond. It's just whether I go for a hard screen, or try and screen it with plants.

* Main garden - full borders of small trees, shrubs and other plants so that I don't see bare soil, fences and into other gardens.

* Try and reduce the long narrow appearance.

 

That's good.

Regarding your third objective, attached photo is what I meant about making diagonal areas in a long narrow garden. Hope this helps.

 

Yes - diagonal lines can make a big difference to the look of a space @lizzie27. It's an old design trick, especially for those long narrow plots, but you can also do it with oval and circular shapes if you know what you're doing. That's a bit trickier than straight lines though.
The pricier trellis I had [which was for climbers] was still the 'square' stuff as I don't like the diagonal trellis, but again - it comes down to budget and personal preference. I've always done lots of stuff myself, and doing screening yourself is cheaper, and it only requires time, the basic materials - and a good spirit level
You don't have to opt for an 'either/or' situation with the screening @Dan1981. A decent sized, purpose built, planted container, with the screening behind it, will be far more interesting, and you can have winter interest in it as well as planting for the outdoor season. A lot of people use sleepers for that sort of thing, so you could look at that. It's also easier if you can build it to match the size of those, because they aren't easy to cut unless you have the right saw! If you're handy with wall building, you can use those bricks, or blocks and render them, or use granite sets or similar, depending on what you like.
It also means that standard sized shrubs will give you height more rapidly, as they're starting off higher up, but the physical screen will give good privacy even without them.
Then- when you've done that, you look at how to alter the main garden...

 

Thanks @lizzie27 for the example. Im struggling to see how I can implement anything meaningful diagonally in a 5.5m wide garden though. Each 'section' would be incredibly small.

@fairygirl yes I would have a few options for materials. I could certainly build it out of solid brick or rendered blocks, or get some decent timber/sleepers and build it from that.

I like the idea of a roof batten screen, need to decide whether i go the full 1.8-2m high or whether I can accept a lower screen which will be fine when seated, but that I would see over if standing. Or perhaps I make it taller in the corner, and less tall nearer the steps. And how see through to make the screen in terms of slat spacing.

Im looking at over-cladding the existing fence with some nice light brown feather edge cladding as well, giving a nicer colour and finish than the existing green painted fence.

 

I'd go for a higher screen @Dan1981 . You can always cut it down lower if you want, but it's not so easy to add on if it's too low! You can also divide your garden by using the same type of screening in a couple of areas, and that helps make it work together nicely, and means you can have those 'rooms' so that the garden seems bigger, because you're blending it with whatever's growing beyond the garden - borrowed landscape is the term.
It doesn't matter what style you go for - angled, straight lines, circular etc, it's what you like and what suits your needs. It's often easier to list what you don't like rather than what you do like, when designing a space.
If you build a bed, of any type of material, the best way is to remove some of that paving so that planting is in direct contact with the ground below. That helps with drainage, but of course - it depends on what that ground is like below the surface - it might be full of rubble, so not terribly beneficial in itself. It's also surprising how much you need to fill even quite a small bed, so if you get that done, fill it to above the level of the top [just slope it a bit] as it will also settle over winter. Raised beds need a bit of topping up every now and again anyway, but you don't want to start off with it all sinking after you plant, as it then makes it difficult to top up properly without damaging those plants by burying them. It also looks terrible when there's a huge gap between the soil level and the top of the bed.
It's why I built raised beds in this garden when I moved in though. Too much compacted, sticky clay, and it's why they're very useful for our conditions here, especially if you want to grow plants that like good drainage. I've had plenty of experience of amending heavy clay, and it can be depressing, so the beds mean you can get on with planting a lot sooner. Many of my beds varied in height and width/depth, as the boundaries aren't square, but I altered a lot of them this spring to put in the pergola etc, and to make it easier for maintenance because the shared boundary fence is dodgy. I've also replaced/repaired some of that at my expense. This is why doing the hard landscaping first is important.

 

Do you think a wooden archway above the steps would look ok? So you walk down and under it when going down the steps to the garden?

And also can I ask about symmetry. If I put a trellis screen on the right side of the patio (looking down the garden), do I also put the same thing on the left side, to ensure symmetry? If I don't, then the right side will have a trellis screen and the left side will be open.