"Andy Phillips" wrote in message
...
Hi,

As the result of a forced corporate move (*******s!), we're about to move
from a cottage in the West Country to a semi in the home counties. One
problem (from our point of view) about the new house is that we can see a
neighbour's property about 15 beyond the garden fence at the bottom of the
30m-long garden - our current garden is 70m long and has a field at the
end,
so to see other houses so close is freaking us out.

We'd therefore like to grow some screening plants on the line of the
garden
fence that will at least break up, if not completely hide, the neighbour's
house. We don't want to go down the Leylandii route, but we would like
something that will do a reasonable job of screening in summer and winter
as
the kitchen window looks out in that direction.

Can you suggest any suitable plants? We wondered about a bamboo or two,
perhaps separated by a columnar conifer such as a cypress. We're prepared
to
buy relatively mature trees (a budget of £500-£800, say). The length of
the
bottom fence is about 10m.

1. Don't decide on anything before you move. 10mx30m is a pretty small plot
and the sort of planting you envisage will eat up quite a bit of it

2. Don't do as shown below, as you simply emphasise both the rectangular
nature of the plot and (perversely) emphasise the house you seek to hide as
the focus is along the garden

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
x X X X X X X x
x x
x x
x x
x x
x x
x x
x x
x x
x x
x x
x x

3. Think more in terms of design structures in the garden to switch the
lines of interest to a diagonal. Also a pergola structure across the garden
and a tree closer than the boundary may do the job of hiding the view.
Combined with climbers on a 60 cm trellis top to (I assume?) the 6ft fence
that might do the job you seek.

4 Where in the home counties? There are very good large tree/shrub suppliers
dotted around and some very expensive ones to avoid.


pk