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Privacy is a relative term that is related to many of our day to day activities and in almost all walks of life. You never want people to intrude into your personal affairs or activities in any manner. A garden is a place that is partly public, i.e. it is outdoors and if left bare, without any privacy enhanced, a peep from the outside by any intruder or a nosey neighbor will reveal almost everything that you do in the garden. So a garden is a secluded haven only when it is properly screened and protected properly.
A garden can be landscaped to enhance privacy in many ways. There are various methods to enclose the open space of your garden. Trees, shrubs, vines and even brick walls can be used in such a manner that they optimize the exposure of the garden design ideas to the outside world and at the same time do not screen the essential nutrients in the form of sunlight, air and blowing wind. A canopy of trees can give a secure appeal and prominent privacy by using the landscape to your advantage. It lets the sunlight to infiltrate through the branches but give the place a dense look so that the area is enclosed.
You can either wall you garden in or wall the intruders out by constructing a fence or a wall that obstructs the view from outside. This fencing can be affected in many ways which include brick patterns with sufficient holes for air circulation or vines and trestles that run through the circumference of the garden, the courtyard, or the backyard landscaping to enclose it. A long and a bare wall will spoil the entire look of the garden by making it monotonous. A simple way of eradicating this dull look is to embed it with shrubs of different designs slotted on the wall and hang potted plants on them.
Clusters of shrubs and smaller plants can also be used to separate areas that require privacy. A small bunch of shrubs can actually act as a fence to the children play area. They are harmless and can be made into various designs that make the arena attractive. Deciduous shrubs are often the choice of landscaping contractors and are the best natural screens available in nature. They are thick and protect the garden from unsightly views and at the same time they allow much of the sunlight to penetrate during the winter season. Evergreens and coniferous trees also serve the same purpose.
Vines grow on some solid support. They cannot stand as plants of their own and require a proper support (preferably wooden) to cling to. But this attribute of theirs can be used to screen the garden from outsiders. By arranging a proper fence, a chain link or so, and installing few vines at the bottom you will experience a beautiful fence in a few months. The major advantage of using vines is that they grow faster than the shrubs and do not require a lot of maintenance. Further, they occupy lesser space than shrubs which tend to grow horizontally too. Choosing vines that have thorns is a clever way of increasing your privacy and security as well.
If the garden is let open to the sky without a proper ceiling, it will give a bare look sans any intimacy. This can be avoided by installing a ceiling that either partly covers the sky or entirely covers it. Large trees can cover the sky partly and also provide substantial shade to the region from intense sunlight that might damage some sensitive plants.
Privacy problems should be addressed during the planning stages of the garden rather than making constant alterations after constructing them.
Tags: Landscaping for privacy | Landscaping for privacy | landscaping ideas | landscaping ideas | garden screening | garden screening | garden design | garden design
January 7th, 2010 at 5:55 am
Hi, interesting post. I have been pondering this issue,so thanks for sharing. I will certainly be subscribing to your blog. Keep up the good work