House overlooked - Planting a tree

Jaytee73 · Post by **Jaytee73** » Mon Nov 18, 2019 2:49 pm

I have recently purchased a property and on the opposite side of my fence at the bottom of my garden, there is a dormer bungalow which, whilst on an angle from my property, does overlook my house.

I am wondering if there are any laws about planting trees at the bottom of my garden to mask the view of them looking into my living room and if so, what plants/trees you you recommend.

I would be very grateful for any advice.

Many Thanks

London mike 61 · Post by **London mike 61** » Mon Nov 18, 2019 4:43 pm

I don’t know what height the plant would have to be to achieve the level of privacy you want. There are some factors that will influence your choice;
1. Trees are mainly deciduous and lose their leaves in the winter so that may defeat the objective and are slow to reach a decent height and width.
2. Large evergreen shrubs will do the job but can take a lot of ground area as well as height .
3 . Both the above cause shade which may not be wanted in a otherwise sunny spot.

Having said all that , for a quick fix I would put a couple of stout fence posts in the ground a couple of feet away from the fence line so you can get behind to trim the climber and make up a trellis out of roofing lathes and grow some broad leaf ivy up the trellis. The ivy is evergreen and will do the job fairly quickly and as long as you keep it under control, it won’t be a pest .

For a longer term solution, you could grow a hornbeam hedge there because although it is semi deciduous, it holds on to its copper coloured leaves until spring . It just depends on how urgent or patient you want the screen up .

If you don’t want to grow anything there, you could buy some bamboo screens and pop them in place with stout sticks and see how it goes.

Mike

dewaltdisney · Post by **dewaltdisney** » Mon Nov 18, 2019 5:11 pm

Laurels are a good screen. They are very hardy and if clipped regularly you can shape into a nice hedge. They can grow up to 15 foot if you let them go but you can hack them back to suit. You can buy five foot high plants to get a good start which might be a pricey way to do it when small plants are cheap.

DWD