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Screening plants

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  • Mojisola
    Mojisola Posts: 35,557 Forumite
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    Gazelle1985 wrote: »
    Can anyone recommend the best plants to use for screening? We’ve just bought a house, and the fence that we’re not responsible for is very low and doesn’t offer much privacy.

    How much would a higher fence cost compared to pots and plants?

    You could either offer to replace the short fence with a taller one or put up your own on your side of the existing fence. If you stagger the posts so that the new ones are in the middle of the existing panels, you'll only lose a few inches of ground.

    You could still use some plants in pots on the patio section or use smaller pots filled with concrete to support fence panels or trellis panels.
  • moneyistooshorttomention
    moneyistooshorttomention Posts: 17,940 Forumite
    edited 16 May 2018 at 10:51AM
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    Hmmm....to that suggestion...but personally I'd be wondering if the neighbours might rip down their own fence and use the one OP put up instead as "the" fence between the properties and...there might be boundary problems. Also, most immediately the point, awkward little gaps attract weeds that one can't get at to remove them. I certainly really struggled to get at a bit of ivy that had started growing in between nfh and myself - and had visions of that growing all over the place right, left and centre (managed it - but it was literally impossible to pull it out and proved difficult to kill it).

    Plants would have the virtue of not being an obvious "boundary feature" iyswim - and OP could take them with them if they move subsequently and containers can be temporarily moved.
  • Mee
    Mee Posts: 1,441 Forumite
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    Note a similar topic came up on Gardeners' Question Time, 3/6/2018
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b493vk
    Free thinker.:cool:
  • Davesnave
    Davesnave Posts: 34,741 Forumite
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    Mee wrote: »
    Note a similar topic came up on Gardeners' Question Time, 3/6/2018
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b493vk
    ...And they didn't come up with much, did they? Starts around 9 mins in.



    I'd still reiterate that pyracantha is a great screening plant, which can be trained to cover walls, fences etc, and unlike bamboo, it's wildlife friendly too.


    Expecting anything to screen effectively long-term if grown in a pot is a hiding to nothing IMO, and possibly an expensive one. Neither of my well-behaved bamboos has done well in a pot.



    And don't forget, big things in pots fall over!
  • Gazelle1985
    Gazelle1985 Posts: 145 Forumite
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    Hello, thanks for all the suggestions.

    It's a very wide patio, so no chance of growing something sideways. Putting our own fence up is definitely a possibility which we're still considering, but as we've only recently moved in, we don't want to have the awkward conversation with the neighbours about blocking out their garden just yet. We also think that they might be adverse to a higher fence because their garden is very narrow and it may well block out all their sun. We think a few nice plants would be a bit friendlier.

    For now we have bought a 5ft ligustrum aureum and 1ft prunus and will just see how they do in very large tubs with lots of plant feed.
  • Davesnave
    Davesnave Posts: 34,741 Forumite
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    Well, the ligustrum is pretty bomb-proof.


    I agree that suddenly shutting the neighbours out with your own tall fence wouldn't seem very friendly, so it's better to go for something that grows into place, but technically you're limited to 2m with boundary fences anyway.
  • Farway
    Farway Posts: 13,229 Forumite
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    Davesnave wrote: »
    ...And they didn't come up with much, did they? Starts around 9 mins in.

    To be fair to GQT though, the questioner, like some posters, neglected to add important background detail to the question.

    In that instance they wanted to screen a 3 storey house:eek:
    Eight out of ten owners who expressed a preference said their cats preferred other peoples gardens
  • Grenage
    Grenage Posts: 2,899 Forumite
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    If you can pull up a few patio slabs, you might have some joy planting directly. Container plants are a lot of work compared to those in open ground.
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