Narrow tall nonflowering privacy shrub: narrow Florida sideyard
amaryllis52
11 years ago
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lola-lemon
11 years agoamaryllis52
11 years agoRelated Discussions
long, narrow, shady fenced sideyard
Comments (13)Like bahia and michelle I'm in coastal NorthernCA, but as an amateur can't suggest any plants (when I left the Midwest, I wasn't gardening, LOL). But I have a long skinny lot, although ours is a double-slope hill. On the long sides of the house, we landscaped around the arrow-straight concrete paths already there. One side is 5' and sunny, the other 10' wide and shady. The issue is, what's your walkway? Is this just an occasional walkway, or is it your main in/out? An occasional walkway can be narrow and charming, but if it's your main in/out you need a good chunk of it to be clear width in case you need to move big items in/out of your studio. We found that with a judicious use of plantings, those hard straight lines get softened up. It's surprising how pretty you can make a straight path with some thought and energy. Because of where you are, you need to think about what it's going to look like in fall and winter. We have found foliage (color/shape/texture) and vertical layers (low/medium/high) to be key in visual interest. Maintenance is going to be needed - plants always grow into the open space, and need to be tied up/whacked back/staked straight. North shady side: From 2002, looking upwards. This is just to give you an idea of this long (25') straight bed. The sidewalk is actually the neighbor's, she lets us use it. We each have 5' of width. Several years later, with vase-shaped Japanese maples, hellebores, aucuba, iris, and rhododendron: Top half of the bed: Close up detail, top half: callas, variegated plectranthus ciliatis, hydrangea, variegated alstroemeria (for the leaves; it seldom flowers in the shade), brunnera 'Jack Frost': The north beds when you're looking down at them, from the top (street) end. The LH side plants are my neighbor's, a 1' wide-bed with iris, gaura, and a leaning cotoneaster I'd love to take an axe to, LOL: If you have or can borrow building skills, some planter beds, at least 1' tall (minimum for safety - 18" would be better), could nicely break up that long "runway". If you do something like this, be aware that the 'jog' in the path should be wider than the path itself, because turning corners visually constricts a space as you go through it:...See MoreHelp with tree layout for privacy border
Comments (12)If you do not want to install a stucco fence, if city code allows intall a short electric fence along the back property line to discourage wild animals from invading and eating your landscaping. Then Plant two rows of Thuja Plicata Green Giants in a staggered pattern for the entire length of your house. Plant all the trees on 10 foot centers, and be sure to dig the planting holes for the back row of trees at least 6 feet away from the easement. Also, space the center holes for the front row of trees at least 10 feet infront of the back row. X,,,X,,,X,,,X,,,X...X...X...X...X...X...X ...X...X,,,X...X...X...X...X...X...X...X county drainage easment, county drainage easement As you can see from the planting example created by the rows of Xs above, it will take 21 trees planted on 10 feet centers to cover each 100 linear feet of your back boundry that you want to plant with Thuja Plicata Green Giants. If you want to plant them for nearly the length of your home and and if that linear length is more than 200 feet, then you will need to plant more than 42 of these trees. If you wanted to plant the entire 400 yard linear boundry line than you will need to plant 84 of these trees. If you can purchase 84 one gallon sized potted trees, purchasing that many should be much easier on your budget. For each of these one gallon size trees you choose to purchase just predig holes 3 feet wide in diameter by 10 inches to 1 foot deep. Also pre install a drip watering system with outlets, which once the trees are planted, can be positioned to water each tree individually. A high graded quality one gallon Thuja Plicata Green Giant tree should be anywhere from 12 to 18 inches tall and have a well filled in pyramid shape. If the winters are mild in your part of California, then one gallon trees that are watered correctly and given slow release non burning fertilizer at the beginning of each growing season, should be expected to acclimate fairly quickly and grow at least 6 to 12 inches during the first year after you plant them. The next year if you have been good to keep them watered properly, and fertized at the approprate times, they should grow at least an addtional 3 feet. By the end of the 3rd year if you have still kept them watered at the right amounts, and fertilized appropriately, then they should have grown an additional 5 feet. That means your trees by the end of the 3rd year, could at the very least have grown to be about 11 feet tall. By that time, it is possible that they could have spread enough, if you planted two staggered rows to almost be giving you a solid wall affect for at least the 4 feet up the trees' height. Every year there after they should grow at about 5 feet, and as long as you keep them fertilized properly their skinny new top growth should keep filling out at a fairly nice pace. Other wise if the trees are not fertilized at the beginning of their growing season, but if they get the right amount of soil moisture, they will grow taller, but the new growth will look thin and sparce, while taking over six months or more to ever fill out with a well balanced branching pattern. If your trees begin to take on such an appearance, by all means resist the temptation to snip of that thin up shoot of growth. Instead simply begin feeding and watering the tree properlly and it will respond by producing a nice amount of branches on that upshoot of new growth and also, follow that with more new height growth. With these trees, always remember that any branch you cut off at the trunk will not grow back, so if for any reason the lower branches become brown due to the tree not getting enough water, or the tree's roots suffocating from too much water, do not cut those branches off to the trunk. So do not purchase trees which have a lot of lower trunk showing. Also if after plantings the trees encounter too dry of soil and begin to brown. Do not prune away the brown branches. Instead you can remove the dead needles if you would like, and simply begin making certain the tree gets adequate moisture. Then be patient and if you have begun the better care paractices in time, you can be assured the tree will grow new green needles on those bare dead looking branches you left on the tree. If the tree's lower branches begin to die due to soggy soil conditions which suffocate the tree's root system, you should wait to see if these dead looking branches will recover, with proper care of the tree, but in that situation there is not such a high chance these will respond as well as desired. If you plant a wall of these trees, than to prevent them looking boring consider planting a variety of shorter and not to broad of spreading ornamentsl shrubs planted and spaced appropriately infront and lined up with the middle of the front row of tree's spacing. At the feet of the ornamental shrubs you could install a border planting of continuously flowering, or very decorative leafed one to two feet tall potential growing plants or shrubs....See MoreLeast Dangerous Bamboo Privacy Screen?
Comments (26)I had written off bamboo, but I'm considering it again en lieu of installing motorized drop down privacy screens on my patio cover that I have been quoted from $3.5K to $7K to install. For much less than $3K should I be able to put some kind of containers against approximately 30 ft of fence pictured at the beginning of this thread that will allow me to plant super-fast growing running bamboo, while also making it physically impossible for them to get out of control? I would like something that will be low maintenance and will grow to a height of 15 feet or more and be thick enough to block the view down into my patio from the neighbor's upstairs window within a short period of time. I need something that grows pretty much straight up without much of of it hanging down or sticking out into the limited space of the patio. Can they be planted in the largest containers to start or do they have to be started in small containers and repeatedly transferred to larger and larger containers as they grow larger? I'm thinking of getting beds raised at least 3 feet so it will raise the planting level so that they have a head start to reaching the height required over the 6 ft fence required for the privacy screen effect. Container This will be in the Sacramento, California area....See MoreHow far/close should the shrubs to the house foundation?
Comments (42)I wrote out a whole long response and then lost it when my browser crashed . . . here's the main essence of my suggestions, although I still would vote for no foundation plantings. I would suggest that you map out any paths with flour, not just as a single line, but the actual width and location of the path and try walking it to see if it is comfortable, even if they are paths you won't use much. You don't want to leave so little width that anyone walking the path has to brush up against your plants. You will want your plantings to stay low as well as narrow. If you grow them up to the bottom of your window, they will be against the shingles and you will have discoloration and rot issues. I'm making some general suggestions of shrubs that stay low, but I don't know how much sun this area gets, which will influence what does well. For instance, the red color on the Midnight Wine weigela will be better in more sun, while the variegated leaves on My Monet weigela will do better with some shade. Also, there may be some lime leaching from the foundation, so you may want to do a soil test in that area to see how acidic or alkaline your soil is. I'll let you look up requirements of plants that appeal to you. Here are some low bushes to look into: -Small weigelas include 'My Monet' and 'Midnight Wine', both of which will stay under 2' height and width. -Rhododendron 'Checkmate' is a PJM type of rhodie, but unlike regular PJMs my Checkmate, which is probably 6 years old and went in as a 2' high plant is now only 3' tall. It might be a bit wider than you want, but should be easy to keep in check with light pruning. Some other rhodies with shorter stature can be found on the site linked below, which allows you to search by height, and then the database entries will include width. Not all of these will be easily found, however. -There are some small boxwood varieties, like 'Morris Midget' and 'Morris Dwarf'. -There are several varieties of short, golden leaved spireas, though I am not sure how wide they get. -Some of the new varieties of Hydrangea macrophylla are quite short, such as the Cityline series (Berlin, Venice, Rio, Paris, etc.) though they aren't hardy enough for me to have any experience with them. Another option would be to have plants that stay skinny enough so that they won't be against the foundation. A trellis with one of the smaller clematis might work for you. 'Piilu' is one that is fairly restrained (usually 4-5 feet) but still flowers well. 'Bijou' stays under 2 feet. You could ask on the clematis forum for other suggestions. If you put the trellis between the windows, it would have the decorative metal work for winter interest, and the flowers in the summer without blocking the window. Here is a link that might be useful: American Rhododendron Society database search...See Morelola-lemon
11 years agoSmivies (Ontario - 5b)
11 years agoamaryllis52
11 years agoDave in NoVA • N. Virginia • zone 7A
11 years agoFloM
10 years agojcalhoun
10 years ago
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amaryllis52Original Author