Adding trellis to front fence.

Lionel_Thinkbag

Hi all

Hope this is the right place for this. The house we bought last year is a little unusual in that our front door and next doors (not attached) face each other. There is a fence in between around 3 and a half ft high.

It turns out that our neighbour has a secondary school age kid, and so on holidays and weekends their kid has their friends around, who are invariably rowdy, noisy, littering swearing etc and hang about on their side of the fence I haven't spoken to the parents as I get the impression that they are aware of this (probably why they don't seem to let the kids in the house) and wouldn't do anything about it anyway - so far we are amicable and I don't want to make waves if I don't have to. I'm just hoping that the kids grow out of it at some point!

I've checked the deeds and the fence in question is my responsibility. I want to put trellis taking the height up to 5ft or so, but we cannot afford to replace the entire fence and the fence posts which are only around 3 1/2 ft.

My question is - if I were to attatch trellis panels, securing them to the bottom of the existing fence, would this work? I know normal solid fence panels need to be secured along their entire height as they don't allow the wind to blow through but surely this wouldn't be a problem with trellis?

Failing that if anyone has any other ideas for cheaply creating privacy/buffer zone I'd be all ears.:)

Silver-Surfer_2

Can't see it giving you much privacy.

Lionel_Thinkbag

Well the idea is to grow plants up it, we figured it would be less ugly/light blocking than a solid fence, and less likely for our neighbour to object (even though it is our fence)

PasturesNew

I can see you might think this will solve your problem, but it might create a new problem as the ferals will assume you've put it up because of them and they will deem you a "stuck up c0w" and will then enjoy mucking up the trellis, breaking it/whatever - or simply lobbing more rubbish over the top.

There are other deterrants. e.g. if you put up well placed mirrors, so they can see themselves, they're more likely to quieten down a bit/behave more. Equally, images of eyes are supposed to make people feel they're being watched and so be more mindful.

Worth a thought now, as that'd be easier/cheaper and not be so in your face of "you're common and I'm blocking you out with this".

Trellis: antagonistic.
Mirrors/eyes: You could just look like somebody with a slightly hippy-style of garden design ideas.

What you REALLY want is for them all to s0d off and annoy somebody else. You need to make the environment less attractive to them, so they start to think about s0dding off for a walk about.

Lionel_Thinkbag

If they did break the trellis then I'd definitely talk to the parents or police if necessary. Right now it's just sort of low level annoyance - and not really directed at us as such, they're really just typical teenagers trying to show off to each other, but I still want to make the boundary clear if you see what I mean. I like the mirror idea, but I doubt the OH would like it as he has fixed ideas about garden design.

Silver-Surfer_2

Lionel_Thinkbag wrote: »

If they did break the trellis then I'd definitely talk to the parents or police if necessary. Right now it's just sort of low level annoyance - and not really directed at us as such, they're really just typical teenagers trying to show off to each other, but I still want to make the boundary clear if you see what I mean. I like the mirror idea, but I doubt the OH would like it as he has fixed ideas about garden design.

Well unless you see who did the damage you'll just antagonise the situation.

Hoploz

Is there room to put some tall planting your side of it for screening?

Lionel_Thinkbag

Yes there is room, but at most it would have to be climbing plants in planters with trellis. It's paving slabs underneath so I wouldn't be able to plant a hedge or anything.

@Silversurfer: I wouldn't go to the police first, I'd talk to the parents and I wouldn't even expect them to pay for the damage but at least do their part to prevent something occuring again. But if it did turn into a situation where my property was being repeatedly damaged I'd have little other choice than to involve the police. What would you do in such a situation?

Hoploz

I had in mind maybe some tubs with attractive fir trees in, perhaps just a bit taller than the fence to start with but they would grow above it in a year or so. That wouldn't be confrontational.

Jamiesmum

You could buy plants which is probably the easier option and less obvious to them. You can buy plants already grown to a certain height but this will add more to cost. You could add a platform to the floor to take it up a ft or two then put the bushes/plants down. Trellis is fine too, you can get some with smaller gaps in. 5ft isn't much better though? I would assume they will all still be able to look over to you.

Failing that, if their at secondary school, it's probably a few months a year for the next year or two before they !!!!!! off. So I'd be wary of spending cash with this in mind. If they are causing you no major problems then you could just leave it be.

http://www.click4garden.co.uk/the-grange-alderley-tall-convex-top-garden-trellis-1-93m-h-x-1-2m-w?utm_source=google_shopping&gclid=CI-VqsWS7ssCFdMV0wod2T4G_Q

https://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/gg-groupon-goods-global-gmb-h-51-2469?deal_option=1f3c2ca6-5a49-4d7d-a23f-afbf903dec65&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=uk_dt_sea_ggl_txt_tim_pads_cbp_chp_nbr_target*_adposition*1o4_prodtarget*18283950120_adtype*pla_product_partition_id*18283950120&mr:referralID=a63664e0-f83d-11e5-8195-005056947d48&gclid=CIyjjsWS7ssCFckaGwodQ_MMqA

Jonesya

Depends how much you want to spend but there's plenty of companies that sell ready grown hedges and screening plants planted in a trough, not cheap but they are instant.

Worth shopping around.

This sort of thing:
https://www.hedgesdirect.co.uk/acatalog/Instant_Hedging__Trough_Grown__Pre-Clipped.html#BrowseScreens