Front Garden Help
Hi,
I would appreciate any advice you may have to screen my front garden. It is next to a fairly busy street and passerby are constantly looking through the windows affording us no privacy. Please see picture. Would it be a good idea to use ready grown Ivy Screens as shown in the attached picture? The other challenge is that the front garden is fully paved and I dont want to dig - would this survive in a trough.
Would appreciate thoughts on the Ivy Screen or other ideas to afford us some privacy. Thanks
Comments (25)
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What to do with front garden?
Comments (10)You can train Garrya elliptica as a wall shrub, ditto Rhamnus alaternus variegatus - they both perform really well in the shade and make a great backdrop for other plants. Osmanthus heterophyllus is one of my favourite shrubs for shade, as is Daphne odora variegata. For some early scent try Sarcococca and Viburnum bodnantense 'Charles Lamont'. For softening the edges there is nothing better in dry shade than Epimedium (loads of different varieties, but my favourite is Frohnleiten). Tellima grandiflora is another fantastic plant for dry shade. If it's not too shady you'll also get some of the herbaceous geraniums (Rozanne is a good long-flowering one) to survive. Other people have mentioned ferns, but they really like moisture, however, Dryopteris erythrosora and Polystichum setiferum will both take a bit of dry shade. Pulmonaria, Tiarella and Brunnera 'Jack Frost' also like to be in the shade and work very well as part of a naturalistic scheme. One of my favourite climbers for shade is Vitis coignetaie, it will grow in deep shade and gives fantastic autumn colour. You can also use Clematis armandii, but it can get a bit too vigorous....See Moreneed help for garden arrangement to cover klargester in front garden
Comments (5)I am currently involved in a project where we have buried the offending structure partially in a raised timber bed and planted a range of groundcover shrubs around the access - including: Pachysandra terminalis, Cotoneaster dammeri, Cornus canadensis to name a few. Good Luck!...See MoreNeed help with what to plant in front garden
Comments (3)Hi Leeza - what well weeded borders you have! And welcome to the world of gardening - its great fun!! The shrubs you have will definitely bush out over time to cover the wall to a greater extent than they do know. I would be tempted to add some summer flowering perennials to fill up some of the space - something very easy to look after like a harder geranium orion or rozanne and maybe some penstemon like Raven - these would bring some colour interest into the area. Also think about some spring bulbs like iris reticulata, crocus or tulips. Good to plant know and they will cheer up the whole area. Other than that get a good mulch/top dressing to try and keep the weeds down!...See MoreFront door needs help. Front garden too
Comments (4)Hi, are you in the UK? Just that I’ve never seen sand used in that way. With the path you could add small pea shingle around the paving slabs to tidy it up a bit. If that is your front garden on the left, then as Ellie suggests, planting will help. However, sand is not nutritious enough to grow plants in, unless you have the climate to grow cacti and succulents. What to grow depends on your location and whether the area is sunny or shady. A pot either side of the front door would look smart....See More
duffy_shade
5 years ago
Sonia
5 years agoHow about placing window film on the lower half of the window? It will give you privacy without cutting out the light. Police Neighbourhood Watch advise not to have high planting/hedge in a front garden as it gives burglars cover.
duffy_shade thanked Soniaduffy_shade
5 years ago123
5 years agoWe took down the voiles (net curtains really) and planted window boxes. We are about the same distance from the pavement but only the tallest passers-by can look in now. We have something different in them each year.
duffy_shade thanked 123Ki
5 years agoThe blind is down in this photo so you can’t see the unobstructed top half of the windows but you can see the film
duffy_shade thanked KiAR
5 years agoduffy_shade
5 years ago- duffy_shade thanked slookys
Emily
5 years agoI like the pic slooky shared but think the room would lose too much light? Think that screening would be better for a house set further back from the road perhaps. Luxaflex do a Venetian blind that can be stacked anywhere on the window I think. Could only find yellow pics with quick search. Something like that with some strategic decorative outside planting might work ?
duffy_shade thanked Emilyduffy_shade
5 years ago
PROEarth Designs Garden and Build London and Essex
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
Make use of as much space as possible. A nice hedge in front against the wall and then some full window boxes would do the trick. Go for a low maintenance self watering window boxes display. We also have a stick on film on our windows which works a treat. Pleached trees also might be worth exploring depending on your budget
duffy_shade thanked Earth Designs Garden and Build London and Essexslookys
5 years agoSome photos of a portion of our back garden. The house on the left has a huge dormer window which we wanted to block out and then the bungalow on the right raised the roof and installed many windows some only 8ft from the boundary which the council allowed as they said we had a big garden and the windows although close to the boundary were a long way from our house. So the summerhouse will eventually be nestled nicely in the evergreen firs which we planted. You can just about see the portuguese laurel (middle one got sick for a while and we thought it was a goner but it recovered this year and so is very small) in front of the fence. I hope these will get above the height of the fence. As the photinia trees grow I hope they will knit together to form a screen and we hope to raise the crown by pruning.
duffy_shade thanked slookys
Emmanuelle