Thursday, October 27, 2011

Quick privacy

My shrubs along the side of my driveway help screen piles of debris, rotting wood, abandoned garden plants, equipment and other mess from next door (under the 1st 2 arrows).  They also help block the windows of the voyeuristicly-inclined other neighbor (under arrow #3).  But now the shrubs have been trimmed and both they and the crabapple are losing foliage.  Now the front of the turnaround, the deck, the interior of the garage and the inside of the sunroom are again exposed to prying eyes while I'm now faced with having to look at the ever-present mess right next door. After 9 years I'm tired of it.

So I rigged up a quick screen using rope, landscape fabric and clothes pins.  By overlapping the panels, wind can blow through the screen without opening any gaps.

I was afraid that a black wall (even a temporary one) would look less than pleasant.  But, honestly, I liked it immediately.  I may hang more fabric to the left of the red-twigged dogwood and close up the view over to the viburnum.  We'll see.


Bottom line, I've decided to double the length of the privacy fence and run it all the way down the turnaround and end it across from the corner of the garage.  Just imagine how much nicer that will look and how secluded my outdoor living space will become!



But that will have to wait until next Spring.  

Since the owner with all the piles of rotting wood etc. actually lives in another house, this one (which always looked a mess when they lived there) is getting even less attention now.  When I extend the privacy fence, I'll include a gate somewhere.  After all, should someone neater with more property smarts moves in, we might be able to exchange views.  But until then that gate will remain firmly shut.

4 comments:

  1. Looks like the right choice. Why look at other people's mess if you don't have to. They'll have to look at their own mess instead of your lovely garden.

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  2. Thanks, Linda. What good is it to work so hard here, when the eye has to include someone else's blight? It takes the edge off the gardens over here.

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  3. Good idea!

    That is the one thing about living in town that would be-hard for us; loosing the privacy factor.

    But it also makes you less tidy outside....so I almost sympathize with your neighbor...almost.

    I know gardening is quite different in civilization!

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  4. I would definitely extend the fence!! Having pain-in-the-butt neighbors is so frustrating. You could even add some evergreens to the front of the fence. Prague viburnums are ultra easy evergreens that grow really fast and require zero care.

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