check out the work of Wolfgang Oehme & James Van Sweden...https://www.amazon.com/Bold-Romantic-Gardens-Landscape-Sweden/dp/1888931108

Oh that is gorgeous! Thank you! I'm going to study that picture. I see lattice to the right.. Did you put it in front of shrubs or is all of that green vines growing on the lattice?

I will look at John Brookes's books.

Funny, Dan Pearson's book is divided into seasons. And yes it looks very bare and empty during the winter. He was actually going for that look--I am not--because he likes to create very stark contrasts between the seasons. The garden looks like a completely different place at different times of year.

The lattice is on top of the stone walls to make them higher and to give a home to various vines. The branches coming over the fence on the right are next door's apple trees. We really do live cheek by jowl here.

I have several of Brookes' publications and can fully second that suggestion!! Also attended a seminar on design that he presented here :-) Not only do they offer various design scenarios that are appropriate for even the tiniest garden, there are scads of very inspirational photos as well as plant suggestions and discussions of hardscaping and including various other garden accoutrements.

Following with interest. My house is on a deep but narrow lot, so while I have plenty of room in back, I have very little on the sides, right where privacy is most wanted. I'll be checking out the recommended books for sure!

Thank you, Floral_UK. Unfortunately my neighbor has no trees or shrubs that I can "incorporate" in that way, but I like the look so much that I sometimes consider creating a false line--planting the large shrubs and small trees (actually on my side of the property line) and then putting lattice work and vines in front of it to create the illusion of a small garden surrounded by wildness.

You can certainly have vines on the lattce. Small trees need care because they will go over into next door. So either the neighbours need to be on side or you have a permanent pruning job.

When you refer to a property liine do you mean there is no wall or fence?

No wall, no fence, and Codes prevent me from building any kind of fence I would like.

What I do have is a bit of space--an area that is 10 to 15 feet deep I am willing to devote to large shrubs and/or small trees. My plan would be to plant them a good five feet or more from the property line so that I don't have to worry too much about them crossing the line. I know I will eventually have some pruning--unless I luck up and get a better neighbor--but I'm willing to do that for the look.

Well that kind of situation is outside my experience. Fences, walls or hedges are the usual thing over here. Dan Pearson's London garden would definitely have walls. But there's no reason why you can't make a secluded small garden without them. But it does restrict your use of climbers to clothe the vertical surfaces.

Thank you. Yes, Dan Pearson's garden has walls and fences, and as you say almost all deciduous plants. (So in the winter there is a lot of wall.) Having no wall, I would plant almost all evergreens. I'm browsing John Brooke's and Noel Kingsbury's small garden books as well. Many of the gardens featured rely on fences and walls too. I am having trouble finding examples of of anyone doing a garden quite like I have in mind. I see more examples of the general idea--large shrubs creating a sense of privacy-- but usually there's a wall to back the shrubs up. And when I see photographs of a mixed evergreen shrub border (closer to what I have in mind), it is at the edge of a large open space, almost always a lawn, not a small living space of the sort I have in mind.. I guess my main worry is that so many large shrubs surrounding a small living space--this space would be about 13' x 18'--would be overwhelming and feel claustrophobic. I feel that if I saw more examples of this I would have a better idea.

I don't have a small garden, but I do have a mixed shrub border that separates a work area from the main drive. I have a backbone of three different colors of coniferous evergreen large shrubs/small trees, interspersed with smaller broadleafed evergreens, and deciduous shrubs/small trees and vines chosen for a combination of flowers, fruits, and fall color. There are perennials scattered along the margins.

These photos were taken when it was 5-7 years old, and it's now been in the ground almost 9 years.

Front of the bed.

Fall

Early summer

late fall/early winter

Back (work area) side as fall color is just beginning to develop

Floral's first comment is right on the money IMO. Hardscape to meet your needs for sitting, cooking, and moving around the garden along with any needed storage before any plants get put in. When you get to the stage of adding plants, stepping them down some to be lower near the "living space" will be helpful. And you may be able to push the limits on fencing with occasional ornamental trellises covered with vines.

Thank you, NHBabs! You have a beautiful garden. The texture contrasts you use are close to what I'm imagining. The pics of the area screening your work area are especially useful, as I am trying to imagine a mixed hedge with the neighbors' houses behind it. I'm going to go back and look at your pics again to get a clearer idea of how you did it.

I am still struggling to imagine this kind of mixed planting in the small space I have--with all of the shrubs up close. I am attempting to sketch out how it would look from different angles to get a better idea.

I don't really see that the absence of a wall or fence makes any difference to the design or plant choice. You can plant your shrubs as if there were a fence behind them. Basically you just plant high at the back and low at the front. It isn't rocket science. The fence isn't vital it's just the situation we almost always find ourselves in here because of the way our homes are built.

The front of my bed (first three photos) steps down in height from the back edge (last photo) as floral recommended. The back of the bed is pretty much a wall of foliage, but because the front of the bed has perennials that vary from less than 6" in height to 3' or so it is comfortable to be near and doesn't feel like the plants are looming over me. There are places where the plants don't exceed 3' or so in height for 5'-8' back. If you use more evergreens at the back than I did, then you can use more medium and low plants at the front. I wasn't looking for privacy or full coverage as you seem to be, so you just will want to have evergreens in a slightly staggered row across the back. They mostly don't need to be taller 6'-8' in height to give you fairly good privacy, and if there is an overlooking high neighbor's window, just plant a taller plant in line with that spot, and keep everything else in the 8' or shorter range.

NHBabs, thank you for the specifics. I'm sketching it out and I see that you are right. I will have to go a bit taller than the heights you suggest though. The neighbors' houses are up on a hill, looming over us. There are ugly utility wires and transformers visible over the roofs of these houses. So the back row of evergreens will need to be 10 or even 12 feet at times. The mixed hedge will seem even taller still because of the hill/terracing. So it will be dramatic--hopefully not in a bad way. Putting much lower plants up front, near the living area, definitely will help. I was imagining slightly smaller but still large shrubs there too--because I felt they might help create total privacy--but now I feel this would probably be overwhelming.

Floral_UK, it may not be rocket science but I still have a difficult time with these things!

Thanks to you both.

This is about my favorite thread on houzz right now, it's just what i am looking for. I wish I better understood which keywords to use to show example pictures and layouts in this style.

@karoliberty, I also had a tough time knowing what to search for when I planned the shrub bed pictured above. I had a picture in my head, but wanted to see more photos, and didn't find any that fit my vision. And when I asked at nurseries, they suggested one species hedges like an arborvitae hedge. So i just looked at what was available at local nurseries, bought several of each of my backbone evergreen plants so there would be varied textures and colors, and then set out the plants irregularly in the prepared bed. I moved pots around until it seemed like most of what I wanted hidden would be camouflaged once the plants grew a bit and my different colors of evergreens would be spaced randomly. Then I added my deciduous plants around and between them, allowing sufficient space for growth. many of the plants I used such as rhododendrons won’t work in your area because I have quite acid soil, but I imagine that if you visit several good independent nurseries you will find a range of plants that fit your height needs and will include several types of evergreens plus deciduous shrubs to create a mixed shrub border that will work for you.

@nhbabs what’s the Smokey/fuzzy looking plant on the far right side of your bed ?

This summer ....

There’s a shed there somewhere 😉

NHBabs, I remember when you planted that border! It has always been a favorite of mine and I wish I could reproduce it! It is absolutely perfect and nine years on, it just seems to get better and better.

NHBabs, I'd love to see a more recent photo of that bed. :-)

@Jameszone7a Philadelphia, it actually is in the middle of the bed, just on the right of that photo . . .

It is Amsonia hubrichtii, a native of the SE US. a short season of light blue spring flowers, beautiful feathery green foliage most of the growing season, and then typically bright gold in the fall, though some years it develops amazing orange tones like in the photo above. only care I give mine is occasional mulch and cutting it to the ground some time before it starts spring growth.

PM2, here are a few photos from this season. it has had virtually no maintenance for 4 seasons due to a series of family health issues that have kept me otherwise occupied, but it still looks better than most of my other gardens. Most of the smaller plants have been shaded out by the growing shrubs, something that I expected when I planted them.

This week:

MidAugust:

Babs, thanks for posting that recent photo. Looks so good!! I especially LOVE the mid August photos. It's great when we end up wtih a result we were hoping for when we plant a bed, and with this one, I think you got even more than you might have planned.

To be expected that the smaller plants are edged out by the larger shrubs by now. But they were so helpful when the shrubs were still small. I always always plant too close together and it looks like you managed to plant them at the right distance apart to get such a great outcome. Good job. 😃

PM2, I could have spaced some of them a bit wider, but it did look quite sparse for the first year or two. Here are some photos from the first June after a fall planting in September of 2009.

And winter a full year after planting, taken from the top of the dirt pile at the back of the first photo.

Babs, I think you must see this bed as very successful. It's looked good right from the start. Were you trying to screen the buildings behind? I like the way it blends into the surrounding landscape and looks quite natural.

How long has it been there? Are they still growing? Do you think you will have to prune them to keep them from encroaching on each other. You won't have to move anything, right? You did a much better job of spacing them than I would. I would have definitely had to move a couple by now. [g]

PM2, it was planted in the fall of 2009, so it is 13 years old. It is along the main drive in from the road and separates the shop building and what would have been a house site from the outdoor working part of the property where there are outbuildings, solar panels, and while DH was alive there was usually a stockpile of very large tree trunks (6’ diameter) waiting to be processed into bowls.

Thus far I have not pruned anything, though I have removed several plants that voles killed. i wll be removing the Fat Albert blue spruce/picea pungens because there are fungus issues, but I have not done that yet. Maybe I will do one a year to use the tops for Charlie Brown Christmas trees. I will likely replace them if needed with balsam firs which are native to my property or perhaps one of the less common kinds of bluish evergreens. Things are still growing, but some things more slowly, while others are still gaining size at about the same speed as previous years.