Thanks for the informed advice. No, we weren't going to do anything before
we moved. We'd prefer to plant this Spring, but it may be better to get used
to the garden before we make any rash decisions.

The garden has had a makeover relatively recently, and part of the problem
is that the new planting has not had time to get established. This leaves
the garden looking rather bare (especially as we've only seen it in winter)
and the eye is drawn to the house over the garden fence. However, there is a
pergola that runs diagonally across the centre of the garden, and the
climbers on this will eventually generate more interest in the nearer parts
of the garden.

The house is in Harpenden, Herts. In those parts, 10x30m counts as quite a
large garden for a house costing less than half a million. But it's still
depressing for us moving from Somerset where we have a much longer (albeit
even narrower) plot. We have a love of trees and have an unfortunate habit
of planting species that will get too big for the plot. For example, in our
current garden we planted Sequioa sempervirens, Metasequoia
glyptostroboides, Sequioadendron giganteum (grown from seed and now 7m high
and 5m wide), Araucaria araucana, Picea brewiana, Quercus rubra,
Liriodendron tulipifera and others. This strategy won't be acceptable in
Harpenden with other houses very close. Surveyors get very excited by large
trees within 30m.

As to suppliers, we saw a TV gardening program recently that sourced its
larger specimen trees from Tendercare in Denham - is this a good place to
go? Harpenden is within easy reach of the M25 so anywhere on the North side
of London would be OK.

Cheers,
Andy

--
Andy Phillips
"Paul Kelly" wrote in message
...

"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