100ft South Facing Garden -
southerncomfort
Posts: 2
Purchased a property in the south of England with a beautiful 100ft garden. It's 20m wide.
The previous owner, who was elderly, preferred to have lovely lawn and plant nothing on the sides or at the black of a 6 food fence. The problem is, there is little to no privacy on our back garden neighbours can see. Not wanting to block or remove natural light - does anyone have any suggestions on plant selection/design? I simply want to take this blank canvas and add some trees and possibly planter boxes or something to turn a very simple, lifeless garden into something!
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Get yourself a copy of Alan Titchmarsh's How to Garden: Small Gardens book ... around £5.50 on Amazon ......... it's full of ideas for creating privacy in your garden without having to be in a gloomy space surrounded by high fences and hedges.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
The two primary questions. How much effort are you going to put into it,and how much money are you prepared to spend on it?.
The answers to these questions dictate everything else.
consider a pergola or similar open roof structure over your chosen seating area rather than assuming privacy has to mean height and trees which a) take a long time to grow big enough to 'work' unless you get something that will be a monster in 5 years and b) shade much more of the garden and potentially reduce light to the house
I once had a similar garden; long and thinner than what you have described but south facing. When we bought the house there was no privacy on the west boundary; the east was good with a decent old hedge. My advice would be to first make it private either with a hedge or fence. The garden I had was a real sun trap in Sussex and did not suffer lack or light or warmth from a 6' fence. If you are worried about the height, you could have a 5' fence with some trellis on top.....or quick growing hedging. Mixed hedging with 50% privet would be good.
A garden 60+ foot wide will not suffer from shade caused by a fence or hedge. If that is what you fancy go for it but in the meantime look for that book above. Full of good ideas. And I wouldn't bother with planter boxes - you have loads of garden to dig borders in and planter boxes would be lost in that space. You sound like a new gardener. You need to remember that you garden for the long term. There isn't much about gardening that is instant - apart from hard landscaping and summer bedding!