On 19/02/2011 16:34, Greggo wrote:
Hi, I'm a 1st time buyer - a ground floor flat with a garden. I have
zero gardening experience!

My main task is to make the garden more secluded as at the moment there
is just a slotted fence, and the many people who walk by can see in.
Ideally I'd like to get this sorted for the Summer.

Can anyone offer some cheap(ish) and little effort solutions? Is ivy a
possibility, and would I need to stick a climbing mesh up first? Or
Simply plant a load of hedgerows - what types should I look out for?


You won't be able to balance your requirements if you are looking for
plants. If you want something up by summer, you are looking for
well-grown (probably evergreen) shrubs, which will already be at least a
metre high. Those will not be cheap - or even cheapish. If you can
wait a while, you could get something smaller which grows fairly
quickly, Even then, you might be better looking at a climber rather
than a shrub. Maybe an evergreen honeysuckle, clematis montana, and/or
ivy. Use a temporary screen (as mentioned in the other posts) for
privacy while the climbers get going.

For temporary screening, although it won't look very nice, I doubt that
you could find anything cheaper than rolls of greenhouse shading stapled
to the fence posts. It may suffice for a quick fix.

One final point - be very careful when any supplier describes a hedging
conifer as "maximum height 2 metres in 10 years". You know what will
happen...

--

Jeff