help me Make my garden private

nmjams

i recently moved into my home. i have a tiny courtyard back garden which gets hardly any light but i do have a small side area that i want to make as private as possible so i have somewhere to sit when the sun shines.
I have a guy coming at the weekend to give me a price for fencing but i believe the max height is 1.8 metres from the ground.
There are a few houses opposite that can see directly into the garden so i might have to plant some smallish trees or maybe a small structure to sit under. any advice on what i can do?
my garden is the one with the gravel

Silvertabby

Can't see any pictures.

However, what about some bamboos in large pots? They'll give you privacy without being overbearing.

nmjams

thanks for spotting. Edited the url, it should be showing now

sheramber

Front garden fences/walls are normally restricted to 1 mtre high when adjacent to a public highway or footpath of a public highway. Higher than that needs planning permission.

Apodemus

Could you put the fence across the side roughly at the point where the tub and slab design is, to create a secluded portion behind that? Then put some tall shrubs etc in the portion nearer the road. That might create your privacy zone without impinging on the view of cars coming round the corner.

I_have_spoken

>the max height is 1.8 metres<

Much less usually for front gardens, so people don't create boxes in front of very house and ruin the look of the street

Davesnave

l'd create an informal mix of evergreen shrubs like viburnum tinus, elaeagnus, pittosporum, photina etc andadd 3 betula jaquemontii set well back from the road.

There would be nothing taller than 1metre at the boundary, although there's no junction there, so the traffic should be on its own side anyway.

It would be a shaded garden, but the birches have a reasonably open canopy, so plenty of dappled light. I'd leave the other bit in front of the house more open; just get rid of that total gravel effect!

Silvertabby

As you are on a corner, I'd check with your local Council before starting. In our area, we can't do anything that would block the view of a driver turning the corner.

Davesnave

Silvertabby wrote: »

As you are on a corner, I'd check with your local Council before starting. In our area, we can't do anything that would block the view of a driver turning the corner.

Surely even a council cannot enforce laws that don't exist.

Provided the planting along the boundary is below the allowed fence height (without planning permission) of 1m, and not overhanging the pavement, I don't know what law might be invoked. Can you point us to the appropriate legislation?

I don't think the Highways Act would cover trees in a garden not actually overhanging the footpath, let alone the road.

Gloomendoom

Local by-laws could exist.

Davesnave

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Local by-laws could exist.

Yes, and so could covenants, but I wouldn't start from the position of doing anything where these might be suddenly invoked, if they exist.

I would check for covenants in the title documents and interpret them but I wouldn't go to some Jobsworth at Highways and ask for an opinion., because that's what it would be, and perhaps not in accord with what I'd have in my mind.

The great thing about plants is that they do their thing quite slowly, giving humans time to get used to them.;)