When a home next door gets a boost of an additional floor, a remodel, or a brand-new home is built, privacy from tall neighboring homes can become a problem for the homeowner. These changes can affect not only the homeowner’s privacy, but also have a direct effect on the amount of sunlight and airflow received. For those who find themselves living on lots that now adjoin tall homes, adding the right garden elements, structures and plantings can help to regain or maintain privacy.
The privacy lost can be both from the perimeter of the lot and from above. Adding some garden elements can range from simple solutions such as putting an umbrella over a table in just the right place to block visibility from overhead to purchasing one or more large freestanding umbrellas. Building and installing garden structures like trellises, screens, or fences can help with the perimeter views. They also have the added benefit of not taking a lot of room or resisting airflow. The loss of privacy overhead can be addressed by building garden structures like pergolas, gazebos, and arbors and planting climbing plants like flowers or vines that will not only go over the structures but will still allow diffused light to enter.
Some of these garden elements and structures can frame the picture you want to see, perhaps there is a charming brick wall you want to use a backdrop for some garden plantings. Planting some trees or shrubs with a special focus on how they grow, what sunlight their leaf structure allows to go through can help to block the neighbor’s views. Anytime a tree with an overreaching canopy or a pergola, or arbor is built it helps to define the space while blocking overhead viewings.
