Thanks for the good information in this article on border shrubs
along the fence.
Many of the homes in Texas in which I lived had wood fences. They
require upkeep in order to keep them from rotting away, and that's
hard to do when you have bushes next to the fence. Nothing more
boring than a plain wood fence!
But our last house had chain link and was indestructible, made
private with the very landscaping you mentioned and with no upkeep.
Sorry, but...Yay for chain link.
In My Garden Blog
Lower South
July 2, 2009
By
Skip Richter,
Austin, TX
This dwarf Carolina cherry laurel hedge makes an excellent screen to block out the view of an unsightly parking lot.
Using Plants to Screen a View
They say good fences make good neighbors. Well, there are certainly times when a little bit of a screen can help provide some privacy or perhaps hide an unsightly view. While privacy fencing certainly has its place, I prefer the look of a living fence to wood, chain-link, or any other material. Even a well designed and constructed privacy fence can be beautified with some appropriate plant material.
Living Screens
Here are a few tips for using plants as a visual barrier:
1. We don't always need a tall tree to do the job of blocking out unsightly views or providing privacy. Take a stroll through the backyard or sit in the patio area and evaluate just how tall a screen needs to be. Often a 6- to 10-foot-tall plant is enough to break the sight line and make that neighbor's idea of backyard art or creative landscaping disappear!
2. Many of our outstanding landscape shrubs are deciduous. While they provide a great screen in summer, by winter the leaves are gone and with them our privacy. This may not matter if the privacy is for a swimming pool, but it would matter in most other situations.
Evergreen plants provide year-round screening and are usually the best choice. Keep in mind that foliage grows where there is light. Shrubs often grow "top-heavy" as their top gets wider, shading out the lower areas. This leaves us with a lack of foliage down low where it is most critical. Prune hedges to keep the tops a little narrower than the base to allow light to the lower areas and avoid this common problem.
3. You don't have to get all the benefits of a tall screen from one plant. You can use a taller shrub or columnar tree and place mid-sized shrubs in front of it. Two or three levels of different plants does more than just screen; these tiered plantings create visual interest in your landscape.
4. There are a number of evergreen vines that will quickly cover a fence or other structure. Many offer blooms as an added bonus. I have a personal distaste for chain-link and yet have been blessed with this durable fencing material in most of the places I have lived. Give me a chain-link fence and I can turn it into a bloomin' beauty in a season or two!
Now I would like to add a disclaimer to all my current and past neighbors who might be reading this: Nothing in this article, including comments and inferences about past experiences has any reflection on the wonderful, beautiful, tidy folks who have lived alongside me over the years. It's all about someone else!
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Comments on Using Plants to Screen a View
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We welcome your questions and comments about this column. If you have gardening questions unrelated to the column, please ask them on our message boards.
Sandy
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Skip
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Thank you Sandy. You're right about chain link's ease of care and
durability. I like to plant flowering annual or perennial vines on
it, but that does add to the care factor!
sherry
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What to do if the house across the street in a rural subdivision has
chain link fence, yard art, and a deteriorating house plus old
vehicles in various stages of disrepair? Is it possible to create a
hedge along the ditch to completely block my view of the world that
dwells therein?
Skip
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Sherry,
First of all let me say I feel your pain! Now for some solutions. I
don't know where you live so plant choices are going to vary a lot,
but here are some fairly generic options for the lower south. First
consider the distance of the barrier hedge from your house. The
closer it is to you the shorter it needs to be to hide a view. A
fairly good choice would be Bright N Tight Carolina Cherry Laurel
(gets about 15 feet tall) regular Carolina Cherry Laurel is good
too. Both need fairly good drainage so the "ditch" you mention may
not be the best location for them. Southern wax myrtle and yaupons
would be okay for a low lying area but are not going to get above
about 8 feet. Eastern red cedar gets really tall and could do the
trick for blocking the taller views. Red Bay, native to the
southeast would be another option to go above the lower shrubs.
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