Jack wrote:
Hello all.
Zone 5
I have a pie slice shaped yard that is 1/2 acre. The house is almost in
the middle of the slice. The challenge I am having is how to plant on the
side of the yards to create a screen without making the front yard look
too closed in.
URL's to good design sites, and your own experiences would be very
helpful. Both sides get full sun everyday. The wife likes spruce and fir
trees.
Thank you.


Is the point of the slice in the front yard, or is the wide part of the
slice in the front?

If the point is in the front, how narrow does it get? What have your
neighbors done on the property line? How much of a screen do you want?

I have a 1/4 acre pie slice shaped yard. The point is to the front, and the
street frontage is about 45'. There are some plantings on the uphill side of
the yard. My neighbor has some high and low growing evergreen shrubs, with
the lower ones corresponding to a dogwood tree about 5' in on my side. I
have some shade-loving perennials off to the shady side of the dogwood, with
my neighbor's evergreens providing a backdrop. Southwards towards the street
it's sunnier, so I have a couple of rose bushes.

On the downhill side (well, it's actually pretty flat, but the general slope
is down) my neighbor's lawn and my lawn meet. The only border you see is his
grass is shorter and thinner than mine. When you get up to the front of my
house, there's a picket fence across my side, and from that point back, a
privacy fence between my neighbor and my side yards. If there wasn't a
difference in the turf of our lawns, someone would need to pick-up the
mostly hidden fence line from the side/backyards, and extend it to the
street to see where our lots split.

I really don't know what I'd do if I felt a need to screen between that
neighbor's front yard and mine. It's not as if I use my front yard in a way
that I have a need for privacy. In fact, I like the exposure of the front
yard. It gives me a chance to show-off stuff. (The open side also faces the
primary traffic route into the subdivision, and the screened side provides a
nice backdrop. Also, the screened side is perpendicular to the front of the
house, while the open side is on an angle to my house, and perpendicular to
that neighbor's house.)

So if the point of your slice is to the front, maybe you might consider if
you really need it screened -- or at least if you need it screened on both
side, and/or all the way to the street. My back and side yards all have
privacy screening of varying types, but I really think an open look fits
better in the front in my '70s style subdivision full of ranches. If you're
in a estate-filled area, where it's standard for everyone to have high walls
to the street, an open style probably wouldn't work well. And that's where
knowing what your neighbors already did comes in. What you do in the front
of your house could change the whole feel of the neighborhood. If no one
else has big screening in the front, it'll be hard to fit in. (Also, you may
want to check zoning regulations and your CC&R's. They may have something to
say about what kind of screening you can use in the front.)

Now if the point of your slice is to the back, and your front is wider, then
that would be a whole different paradigm.

--
Warren H.

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Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
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