Where to position trees for privacy

Hi, it’s Alexandra from the Middlesized
Garden here and I’m talking about how to position trees for privacy. Positioning
trees away from a boundary can be hugely successful. This garden in the middle is
a long thin town garden, and it’s got a row of houses at the back. It belongs to Posy
Gentles, garden consultant. She has actually positioned three silver birches about
two-thirds of the way along her garden, and away from the side of the fence. It
divides up the garden visually but you can still see through right to the back,
and it completely protects the house and garden from the neighboring window.
These trees here are also positioned about 20 feet away from a boundary. You can
just see the neighbors windows through the trees, but there’s a path behind
trees. So these create a great deal of privacy for this garden without
throwing shade onto the neighbor’s garden. This is a single
espaliered pear tree in front of a window and a little seating area – the
closer you have your tree to where you want the privacy, the smaller it can be.
This is very charming. This is actually a very high wall with mirrors in front of
it and a trellis on top, and there are very tall trees here on a boundary. Tthese
are pleached lime trees (which are deciduous) above an evergreen hedge.
It’s a very smart look and it’s very pretty, and you could have as much
privacy as you like or indeed allow light through. This charming arrangement is a spreading tree – its branches spread over
the terrace. You can cut them so they don’t spread over your neighbors, so you
can have a relatively low tree with lots of privacy. So join us on the Middlesized
Garden blog or subscribe to the YouTube channel and thanks for watching.
Hope to see you again, good bye