Privacy Screen front patio

3 years ago

Hey everyone, looking for suggestions please. Trying to make the front patio look nicer but on a bit of a budget. As you can see in the photo there is a quite a gap in the bush and there’s not much privacy when the neighbours are out the front of their house. Was thinking of installing a privacy screen of some sort but not sure what or how to attach it? Any ideas would be great, thank you.

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Comments (8)

ruthfrench
3 years ago
How about a visit to a garden centre, open again, to buy a plant to cover the gap near the house? It will need to be watered regularly to allow it to establish but that does not require cash. Counterintuitively, keeping a hedge well trimmed thickens it up and encourages growth at the bottom. By trimming the sides and top of the hedge regularly you will ensure no more gaps appear.
Sonia
3 years ago
Planting a shrub there (evergreen) is the cheapest option. Or you could get some bamboo and put it in a planter as below. Or an attractive metal screen, but I don’t think that is budget, although even B&Q sell them now,
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mii2
3 years ago
Taking time to fertilise and care for your established hedging plants will be the cheapest option and will provide the best looking screen. Adding panels etc to this area will make the area fussy and draw attention to the hedge you are trying to hide. The plant nearest the house has at some point in the past had excellent new growth with vertical branches that have been allowed to grow straight up without pruning. They have then been pruned at the top creating a tuft of dividing branches. Weed the base of the hedge removing ivy and weeds. You may decide to invest in an attractive shrub to draw eyes attention to it and away from the hedge. Add general fertiliser to the base of the hedge and make an effort to water well as you start to read up on the internet about pruning. Then in late summer (less chance of scorching weather) put your new found skills to use and prune the hedge to establish a framework for future growth. What would be even more fantastic would be to use the hedge as the focus for chatting to your neighbour about their side- they may share your concerns and be keen to half the workload also you may find having them outside their front door is less of an issue for you!
Leigh
Original Author
3 years ago
Thank you all for your advice so far. I will definitely weed around the current hedge and potentially plant a shrub or something. My neighbours are lovely and we get on really well it’s just nice to have some privacy! There is so much ivy in the garden, it’s a nightmare. When we bought the place it had taken over the whole front garden and was all over the front of the house. Slowly removing it but it’s a huge task!

On another note, we have these stone planters around the patio, I’m currently digging them out as they are full of ivy too and other horrible weeds. Could I please have some suggestions as to what to put in them? I need something low maintenance. Was also thinking of painting the stone maybe white?
Sonia
3 years ago
Looks similar to my little wall and mine are natural stone so I wouldn’t paint it. I would remove all the weeds, add a bag of compost and mix into the soil to improve it. Low maintenance plants I would suggest are evergreen Hebe a family of rounded small shrubs with purple or white flowers. There are loads of varieties with different coloured leaves too. They will need watering daily to settle them in. Of course you can try other plants such as Hardy Geraniums and Erigeron. As the planter is near the house how about some herbs? Sage, Chives, Thyme, creeping rosemary. The pics below are all varieties of Hebe.
mii2
3 years ago
Do you like the containers, do you think they have a purpose in the patio design? The one near your chiminea is not really part of the patio design but a distance away with the concrete under the patio stones spilling out and a row of pavers. The raised height will be very dry and the extremely thin design limits what can grow as the solar gain by the blocks will roast roots in the summer. The other one is placed to cope with the drop in height from patio to lawn, but a sloping flower bed would work just as well. If you don’t love them I would remove them. They are probably full of weeds as they are the only things tough enough to survive in them. Get some manure and fertiliser and dig a wide flowerbed to connect the lawn and patio edge, ensuring the soil height covers the patio pavers cement. This would make a lovely soft border to the patio area when sitting on the patio.
embzop
3 years ago
How about putting some lavender in the planters? It is evergreen, tolerates dry soil and has beautiful scent. Choose one of the smaller varieties to keep in neat.
Leigh
Original Author
3 years ago
In all honestly I really don’t like the planters but they are good for separating the patio and I have 2 young children so they kind of act as a barrier to stop them falling down the hill. (The garden is quite sloped).

Ideally we’d create a decking area and railings but not in our budget at the moment. I can’t really picture it with a sloping flower bed?! Also don’t know if that would require a lot of maintenance?

Privacy Screen front patio

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Privacy Screen front patio

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