Garden ideas to screen neighbours

How about an awning or a pergola? Instant privacy. You can even drape fake plants over the pergola or fabric to give some screening until the planting gets established. Evergreen clematis or you could try a Montana for quick coverage but they can be a bit hard to control. Personally I prefer a mixture of clematis and rambling rose. But choose carefully.

Bamboo is very good as it is evergreen, let’s light in and not covered by the high hedges act. However it can be invasive so you need to dig a containing trench to plant in.

Pleached hornbeams are also very good and although deciduous keep their brown leaves during the winter. Not cheap however.

What about a clematis, planted in each corner, it would quickly grow to the top of the fence and could be trained around the fence to enclose the garden or even better if you did put up trellis on the fence top it would cover that too. After a few years they become quite thick and woody too.

You can get evergreen climatic too.

Clematis

I have bamboo in big pots which give a bit of extra height.

The plants need splitting every few years which is a bit of a faf but you get free plants that way and the pots mean the roots don't wander around all over the place.

Buddlia grows tall very fast and is easy to grow. It needs a hard prune each year or it'll take over, but is great in the Summer.

I also have a sun-sail which covers part of the garden during hot weather. Gives shade and instant privacy without being a permanent feature, and would give your plants time to grow a bit.

Here’s my clematis hanging down from a pergola

Try again!

Oops - went the 1st time.

Just occurs to me from a garden design point of view that you could plant a 'shrubbery' in the middle of your garden with an open space in the middle of that, rather than spending all your money on the edges.

lixy

Just occurs to me from a garden design point of view that you could plant a 'shrubbery' in the middle of your garden with an open space in the middle of that, rather than spending all your money on the edges.

Now that's a great idea.

Wisteria floribunda, in big pots. Cut limbs centered in the pots for climbing.

Have a look at garden screening privacy on Pintrest. Plenty of ideas to look at.
I can’t remember the name of bamboo we have but it is non invasive and doesn’t require splitting.

Beautiful clematis Georgesgran and I love how you have used it. I may just have to copy that one. 😉

Daisy Mae has the best answer for anyone who wants instant effective screening. if you draw an imaginary line at 45 degrees from next door's upstairs window to points in your garden, you find that a well placed pergola with trellis or bamboo cane 'roof' gives you more privacy than a trellis fence within the garden.

If you have time to wait for a standard tree to fill out its crown a spreading tree placed sort of in mid-garden is a shield against upstairs windows. Both the above options make the garden more shaded in parts.

To increase the privacy of the boundary fence I believe a row of 12 foot high pleached trees such as evergreen holm oak is perfectly within planning regs if the trees are well spaced. Quite expensive depending on number of trees and paying the gardener to dig the holes.

Finally, it's within planning regs to erect a gazebo, summerhouse or shed next to the boundary fence. This can be the cheapest option to give max privacy if you can't afford a well made pergola.

My son and I were discussing the very topic yesterday evening!

The right bamboo is quick growing and imho looks good but it's a good idea to surround the roots with a strong barrier to stop it spreading as it's very invasive.

Some good ideas, for quick growing plants, either Laurel or Eucalyptus in large pots so you can arrange them as you wish.
Both grow very quickly and small versions don’t cost too much.

Yes, be careful with bamboo. Where I used to work it came up through concrete (!) into the bathroom. We got it all cut down but the rotten thing regrew and got into all the sewage pipes. It was a lovely plant, black bamboo but we didn’t want it inside the office .

My son in law has cheap "wind-sails" - type of sun-shields which he uses in the summer. That works. They can be fixed to fences or posts or to your house and can be high/low depending on the angle you want. He has several hooks in the garden so he can move them about.

A friend has a pergola with some green netting over waiting for the plants to grow. The green obscures from view suprisingly well.

I have a laurel which is between their window and our patio area. That works too, is fast growing and doesn't mind being hacked about!

My mother-in-law had a tall wattle trellis with roses near her seating area which made a good shield too.

I suppose some of these ideas depend on the size of garden/angles involved and whether you want total privacy or just an area.

I see laurel has been suggested as I was typing.
Sorry J52

I used to prune my buddleia every autumn, cutting all the canes off it. Then I decided to leave the canes in place so the canes form a screen, which they do. The plant is about twelve feet high, and despite not being pruned it still flowers as well as ever.

NotSpaghetti

I see laurel has been suggested as I was typing.
Sorry J52

💕

Georgesgran: Yr clematis is stunning!💕