Perhaps if you can post a picture, people can get more of a visual of what you can do. Why does it need to be portable?

Check out the "No-Peek Privacy Screen". It's 24 feet long, but only 6 feet high. Maybe you can put it two feet off the ground to get your required 8 foot height, or maybe you can cut one lengthwise and sew the two pieces to get 8 feet. The price seems reasonable at $89.99, plus they offer discounts to AANR & Naturist Society members.

Joe

Here is a link that might be useful: No-Peek Privacy Screen

How about a couple of shade sails placed in different angles? There was a product at Costco not too long ago, called Coolaroo, I think they are attractive as well and it will add height and dimension to your yard.

Here is the website
http://www.backyardcity.com/Shade-Sails-Coolaroo.htm

Tina

How much space do you have? We only have 3 ft from fence to waterline, so maybe 2.5 ft of planter. We planted some Italian cyprus which will get tall and create a screen. There may be some trees/shrubs that will give you some height with a "small footprint" as my landscaper called it.

when you have a body like mine, it didn't seem right to hide it from the neighbors - or the rest of civilization for that matter.

dead sexy, no?

I'm so much cooler online

Thank you so much for all your suggestions!

linda: I don't know how to post pictures but I'll ask my kids to help me with that! I thought it should be portable because building dept. regulations prohibit a permanent fence over 6 feet.

inspectorjoe: the no-peek privacy screen you suggested looks great and the website said they make custom sizes so I called but they said they can only customize the length, not the height. They said if I try to raise it higher it will be unstable. But that would have been perfect!

Tina: unfortunately, I don't think I would be able to mount the shade sails. And my yard is pretty small so I'm afraid the sails might be overpowering.

beachdiva: I didn't realize there are tall trees with such small "footprints" so I will look into the Italian cyprus. I was concerned about the roots of the tree growing into the pool. On one side of the pool we have only about 2 feet between the fence and the edge of the lid for the automated pool cover.

Tagbrod and Boogerhead: lol

Thank you all for your help! We just put in the pool and I hope I will soon be knowledgable enough to help others on this forum. You are all so kind.

I called the no-peek screen company again. They said I can buy 10 foot emx galvanized steel conduits that would work with their base and attach the fabric higher up. I think that is what we will do. Thank you VERY much!

That's great, Poolwebber.

Have you thought about how you will anchor the bases? With a ten foot height, I don't think they would be very stable just driven into the ground. It might be better to encase them in concrete. If you leave an inch or so sticking up above the concrete, you can cap them when not in use to prevent debris from getting in.

Be sure to post a picture when you get it up.

Joe

I like the Italian Cypress idea. When we built our pool 15 years ago, my DH worried about tree roots so close to the pool, so we planted trees/shrubs in plastic pots and sunk them in the ground. We are in the process of relandscaping and pulled those pots out. No roots out of the pots at all. Good luck, Barb

You might also try adding a trellis atop your fence line. Our adds about 3 feet of privacy to the top of our 6' fence.

We currently have wistera growing on it - but there is a clamatis that is evergreen and doesn't loose it leaves. I'm sure there are other plant options as well. I love the wistera - it smells wonderful when in bloom. Don't know about your climate though, I'm in the Pacific NW.

So many great ideas; I want to use all of them! We are going to order InspectorJoe's screen to help us through this summer at least until we work out something more permanent. I have spent the past month searching for privacy screens but this one looks much more practical and easy to use than anything I found. Thank you for your additional advice about the installation. I think 6 feet might be enough after all because we can place the screen much closer to the pool than our existing fence. I will definitely post pictures when it is up.

airborne101: I never thought of sinking the containers into the ground. What a great idea! How tall were the tallest trees that you grew that way?

poolmissy: I absolutely LOVE your trellis with the wisteria. Please excuse me for asking such an ignorant question but how did you get the wisteria to grow only on the top of the fence? Are there containers hidden in there somewhere? We live on Long Island in New York. I wonder if the building department regulations would allow us to extend the fence with a trellis.

Poolwebber,

If you look at the second photo - on the left you will see the wistera planted in the corner. The great thing is that the plant can be planted anywhere you have space (even small space) and it grows and reaches out on the trellis. My yard will have 3 wisteras. One for each side of the fence - since we have the trellis on all 3 sides of our back yard. It also grows quite fast, probably 3-5 ft a year.

The wistera does loose it leaves every year, so a better option (for less pool mess) might be an evergreen clamatis. They have beautiful flowers and don't shed their leaves.

Our county restrictions do not mention adding decoration to the top of a 6' fence so it's not an issue - and the neighbors on either side love the look as it dresses up their yards too, since we installed and paid for the trellis it cost them nothing.

Good luck on your decision.

PW, we put Oleander in them and they can get huge. We used to keep them cut at 8ft. We are from PA so understand your weather won't allow these, but I'm sure you can find some rapid growing bushes. Rose of Sharon comes to mind. I used ot love to garden back there, its so different here in the desert. Can't grow a decent tomato ever ! Hope this helps, Barb

thank you so much!!! have a great weekend everybody.

Have you considered non-evasive clumping bamboo trees (as opposed to running bamboo)? Depending on your climate, there are different types of clumping bamboos that are fast growing & excellent for privacy screen. You could line them up across your fence where you want some privacy.