A little bit of privacy

Hi,

We were wondering if some of the other members could help me with some suggested plants for our small front garden.

We own an end terrace which used to step straight out onto the road outside. After some recent work we are now very pleased to have a nice safe pavement running in front of the property.

Unfortunately this now means people walk directly in front of the house and due to the height of the pavement have a wonderful view of my wife and I enjoying an evening in front of the TV.

What we're looking for is something to give us our privacy back. Due to the size of the garden (I'll try and post a picture and rough measurements tomorrow) I want to avoid the obvious 'hedge solution' as this would look a little unsightly in such a small space and we would lose the light into the front room. We have a small bed which has short wall around two sides and the path around the other two (again, the picture I will post will help here)

Ideally we'd like something to help break up the open space so we don't feel so watched as people glance in as they walk past (and they all do!). Being a Victorian house we like the traditional looking gardens and are quite happy for it to be filled with bushy colourful plants/flowers/shrubs. Something pretty fast growing that doesn't spent winter as bare stick or that dies right back would be great. Or something that we could easily buy in quite a large form.

We're in your hands and would love to hear your suggestions!

Many Thanks,
Iwan & Louise

 

Take it you don't want to go with curtains. Waiting for pictures and measurements.

 

It's not a total barrier we want to create, just something to stop the 'glancers' meaning that if somebody wanted to look in, they would have to physically stop and peer through spaces/gaps in the shrubs. If people catch a fleeting look as they pass, that's fine, but at the moment we feel like a new novelty that everyone likes to look at.

We're expecting to lose some light, we just don't want/require the 'wall' effect that we fear a hedge would give us.

I'll post pics/measurements in the morning.

 

The blinds hd crossed our minds, but our windows are really tall and narrow and it's really difficult to find them (we had to have our curtains made at great expense).

Nets are a no-no I'm afraid.

The tall windows should help us retain the light too as the plants/shrubs wouldn't need to be as high as the top of the window

 

I agree about the nets-maybe not, but a silk panel will be fine. a rod and some iron on fabric adhesive-15 quid tops ( although that rather depends on the quality of the silk I grant you).


Voile if you have cats ( from experience)

 

Get some pics up so that we can see the problem. One looking from the inside out would be useful, too.:gnthb:

 

You could also put up a trellis panel over the bed and run something like a Clematis cirrhosa, up it.:thumb:

 

Uploaded pics:

Picture of the house from before we bought it (12 months ago) here
Picture of Garden from above here and here
From the inside here
From the doorstep here

As you can see from the pictures, it's a small garden, but we don't intend to use it at all so we're happy to plant huge bushy things

 

Links to pics now posted

A trellis is one thing we had considered, but we weren't sure what to grow up it that would stay fairly green all year round (we're new to this gardening thing ). Is Clematis a good all year rounder? We don't expect colour all year round, but we'd like it to at least stay green

Bamboo is another good idea. Hadn't thought about that! :D

Thanks for all your suggestions so far....

 

Bamboo might become a bit invasive that close to the house - I'm sure I read on here somewhere with it causing problems with foundations or drains. Its very fast growing once it takes a hold and spreads with underground rhizomes (root thingys!).

Clematis is lovely, but apart from a couple of everygreen varieties, it does lose its leaves over winter and go very twiggy, plus it has to be cut back or at least trimmed in Spring. Clematis Armandii is everygreen though.

If you don't mind losing daylight to your front room, I'd go for evergreen shrubs. Can't think of anything at the moment though, except Mahonia! Hopefully someone else will come along

 

And now for something different, have you thought that while your finding the right thing for you that wigwams with sweetpeas and runner beans might work, obviously there not ever green but things are going to take time to grow