How to Grow a Natural Privacy Screen for Your Garden
With the arrival of spring promising warmer, sunny days, spending more time in the yard sounds tempting. But sipping your morning coffee on the terrace while looking at your neighbors’ garbage cans doesn’t sound so peaceful. If you have nosy neighbors or just want to get rid of street noise, a natural barrier can help. Here are a few ways to grow a privacy screen around your yard or garden.
Choose the right plants for a natural privacy screen
The first consideration when creating a natural privacy screen is the property line itself. If you already have a fence, you can probably add some taller plants to reduce visibility. If not, a hedge line, trellis, or row of taller greenery may be a good solution. Be sure to check your boundaries and local ordinances before digging or planting anything that grows too tall.
For hedges, it is important to find a variety that will grow thick and be easy to train and trim – a bush that wants to spread low or grow tall but thin will not work here. However, there are many varieties of shrubs that are great for creating borders and privacy. For sunny locations, loropetalum , also known as purple bush, is a fast-growing dense bushy plant that will give you lots of beautiful foliage.
If you need privacy regardless of the time of year, you can try bush honeysuckle . It will spread thick evergreen branches and can grow up to a foot and a half per year. An added bonus to this option is that it gets thicker the more you trim it, giving you a full barrier faster.
North America also has many varieties of native shrubs that grow best in their natural environment and are good for birds and other wildlife; in addition, they are usually well adapted to your local environment and often do not require much care to stay healthy. To find them, check with local conservation groups.
Try the grille for a thinner screen
If you don’t have space for a hedge fence, a more subtle option that will have a similar effect is growing vines on a trellis. The trellises can be made from cedar, mesh or bamboo, but the idea is to give your vines a structure to climb on. Once you have chosen the type of grid you will need to set it along the border you want to create. Then plant vines at the base so that when they grow they create a screen of greenery.
Wisteria and climbing hydrangea are two types of flowering vines that are popular for trellises. They will bloom year after year, and in some North American climates they will only need some pruning to thrive. Sun-loving vines that work well for trellis include tube vine and black-eyed susan vine . They will grow fairly quickly, but generally require full sun to flower.
Consult local gardening groups for advice on native vines that will attract birds and butterflies to your garden, and try not to introduce invasive vines due to their growth rate and ability to spread quickly.
Keep your privacy screen closed
If you want to create a border along the edge of a patio or balcony, a row of container plants is best – you don’t have to worry so much about laying out vines or shoots, so you can plant just about anything that will grow outside in your local environment. To get the best screen, you can mix hanging baskets with hanging tendrils along with evergreen or flowering shrubs. Bougainvillea , starflower , and sweet potato vine are all great container plants that will give you quick results.
If you have the space, you can also add a small trellis to the container to give the arrangement more height. If you choose several plants that bloom at different times during the growing season, you will get flowers for the entire time you are outdoors from spring to autumn.