Tired of your neighbour’s prying eyes? Want a little bit more privacy in your garden? We hope the following tips will help.
For these tips, we are going to share ideas that are a bit more on the affordable side of things. Most of these you can DIY too. In fact, all you will need is a trip to your local store and you will be ready to roll.
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A Canopy
A canopy is dead simple to install, and it looks very stylish. Your local store will have plenty of canopy options.
A canopy is particularly useful when it is pushed up against a dividing wall or fence. It will help prevent prying eyes from above (great if you live next to a two-story home!)
Many of the better canopys on the market will even have curtains attached. This will keep you well-hidden when you want a serious amount of privacy.
Even if you are not thinking about privacy, a canopy can be a great addition to the garden. It can protect you from the sun, rain, etc.
Use a Parasol
If you prefer to sit in the middle of your garden, or perhaps don’t have a huge amount of cash to spend, then a parasol can work.
It isn’t going to provide you with a huge amount of privacy, but it will give you some. It will also be a fantastic place to relax during those long, summer months.
Well-Placed Potted Plants and Bushes Can Go a Long Way
One of our favourite garden screening ideas is to create a nice secluded location in your garden.
Surround this with some potted plants or potted bushes. Throw a canopy or parasol in there too, and you will instantly have a place nobody is going to peer into.
The reason why this is our favourite garden screening idea is that it genuinely creates something properly private for very little cost. You can get really experimental with the plants that you use too.
Garden Screens
Garden screens are fence-like panels. Some can be temporary installations, while others you will nail to your decking, etc.
Garden screens can provide a great amount of privacy when well-positioned, much in the same way that those potted plants and bushes would. You can even spice up your garden screens by encouraging plants to grow up them.
While there are plenty of different options on the market for garden screens, we highly encourage you to make your own. Not only is this going to be cheaper, but you can really make that part of the garden your own. You don’t even need much in the way of DIY knowledge either. If you are capable of joining a few pieces of wood together, then you are halfway there.
Water Features Are a Must
So far, we have spoken heavily about screening your garden from prying ears. However, screen your garden as much as you want, you aren’t going to be able to stop people listening in on your conversations. This is where a water feature will come in handy.
Flowing water in your garden can distort your conversation a little bit. This means people are less likely to hear what you are talking about.
Of course, water features are also a great addition to any garden. They come in a variety of sizes and designs, so no matter what you are planning to do with your garden, we are sure that you will be able to find a water feature to suit.
Bamboo
Head to many garden centres nowadays, and they will often have bamboo on sale. A lot of the time it will be marketed as the perfect natural garden screen…and it is.
Bamboo that you buy from your local garden centre will often grow to a few metres tall. It requires very little in the way of looking after too. In most cases, the bamboo that you buy will be ‘ready grown’, so you don’t even have to wait to use it as a garden screen.
When you use bamboo as a garden screen, you end up with something natural and incredibly stylish. Trust us. There probably won’t be that many people in your area using bamboo as a screen!
Climbing Plants
If you have a metal fence, then you will likely have gaps in between the pickets. Obviously, this means that your fence is not going to be providing you much in the way of privacy. In fact, it is not going to give you much privacy at all..
While there are some people that rip out their fences and install something that is a bit more ‘closed’, we have a better idea. Get some climbing plants.
If you can encourage plants to climb up the fence, then it will start to close off a few of those gaps. It will look absolutely stunning too.
You may run into issues if your neighbour isn’t a huge fan of plants climbing all over the fence. However, if the property deed says that you own that particular fence, then there isn’t much that your neighbour is going to be able to do about it.
In our opinion, these climbing plants work better on any fences facing the street. You won’t have issues with neighbours then.
Make Your Own Natural Fence
If you want something a bit more unique, then we suggest that you build your own natural fence.
We won’t give you a complete run down of everything that you need to do here. However, it pretty much involves picking up dead wood and tying it all together (this is easier than it sounds)
If you go down this route, not only will you have a stylish natural fence panel, but you have a part of your garden that is going to be crawling with wildlife.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this list of tips for garden screening has shown you that there are plenty more ways to make your garden private than just installing a basic fence or hedge. even if you don’t go with any of these ideas, hopefully, it has helped ideas start to flow. You may even want to take two or more of these ideas and combine them to make something completely unique to you.