How To Keep Neighbors Off My Property

There was a fourth dimension yous could kick back in glorious solitude right in your ain backyard. So the family unit next door cleared some trees on their lot. And on the other side, the neighbors' new master suite includes a second-story deck with nice views—into your yard. Of a sudden, you experience like you're living in a fishbowl.

As larger houses occupy ever-smaller lots and the demand for outdoor living areas grows, privacy is at a premium. And information technology's not simply about prying eyes invading your infinite—you may desire to shield your own view of your sunbathing neighbors and cake out their churr.

How Can I Get Privacy in my Backyard Without a Fence?

Fences are the ordinarily the outset solution that come up to mind. But there are myriad ways to create privacy in your backyard without a fence too—from putting in perimeter plantings to stone walls, or garden structures.

10 Ways to Block Neighbors View of Your Lawn

To inspire y'all, here are our favorite backyard privacy ideas.

1. Staggered Wooden Boards

Photo by Andrew Drake

Staggered wooden boards are stained in soft shades of black, yellow, green, and red. They create a one-of-a-kind privacy argue softened by shrubs in front end and a feathery tree canopy overhead.

ii. Hedges for Privacy

Photo past Nancy Andrews

This privacy landscaping thought tin can provide year-round screening and are typically not restricted by municipal ordinances limiting their height. Where space is tight, as in a side yard, fast-growing columnar evergreens like Italian cypress and arborvitae or a sheared privet hedge can provide a elementary solution for separating bordering yards or blocking sight lines out a kitchen window.

To plant a new privet hedge, create a trench ii anxiety wide and ii feet deep, space individual shrubs about 12 inches apart, and bring soil up to the branching trunk. Water deeply and frequently the first year, using baste irrigation. To thrive, these deciduous shrubs crave a temperate climate and a homeowner willing to wield sharp shears as oft as needed.

three. Layered Privacy Plantings

Photograph by Nancy Andrews

In larger yards, planting a mix of deciduous or evergreen copse, shrubs, and perennials creates a more than naturalistic expect, especially if you layer plants, grouping them in odd numbers. "Stagger evergreens in the groundwork, and in the foreground footstep downward the height with deciduous material to provide texture, depth, and color," says Elliott Brundage, a landscape architect in Andover, Massachusetts.

Planting deciduous shade trees—which by and large grow from 25 to threescore feet high, depending on the species—is a proficient style to obscure a neighbor's view from a second-story window or terrace. Positioned over a deck or patio, the awning provides privacy and shade in the summer. In the winter, the trees' blank branches allow the sunday to shine into the house.

four. Container Gardens for Deck Privacy

Photo past Philip Harvey

Potted plants such every bit arborvitae or clumping bamboo can be positioned to create a green screen around a raised deck seating area. Ideally, pots should be raised upwardly on casters or made of lightweight materials so y'all can easily move them for parties or deck repairs.

five. Fences and Walls

Photo by Courtesy of Walpole Woodworkers

Newly installed pools, patios, and playgrounds may require a visual buffer in a hurry. A vi-pes solid board argue is the quickest way to create privacy in your backyard year-circular—only exist certain to check local building codes regarding fence heights (and whatsoever other restrictions). It may also be the best solution in a side 1000, where space is tight, since fences have a smaller footprint than plantings.

Board fences come in various styles to complement the compages of your home, and you can stain them to match the firm. "But while a privacy fence might solve the problem, it'southward not always the most aesthetically pleasing solution," says Eric Sauer, a landscape architect in Dayton, Ohio. To intermission up the mass of a board fence, Sauer suggests adding an open lattice or baluster top, and planting flowering or evergreen shrubs in front end to soften its solidity.

6. Stone Wall Topped with Fencing

Photo by Courtesy of Walpole Woodworkers

Another option is to mountain a shorter, three- or 4-pes lattice or picket fence on superlative of a 2- or 3-foot stone wall. The wall, from a distance, is high plenty to disrupt sight lines, while the openwork argue screens without feeling claustrophobic.

7. Masonry Walls with Ornamental Ironwork

Photo by Amy Gallo

Similarly, a masonry wall of rock or stucco that rises 5- or 6-feet-loftier feels less oppressive when windows are cutting into it; often, ornamental ironwork tin ­december­orate such openings.

Michael Glassman, a Sacramento, California, landscape designer, searches garage sales for the fencing he incorporates into his clients' yards. He might use a $50 cast–fe section as a trellis for vines, fitting it with brackets to secure it to the side of a business firm. "As opposed to new ironwork, which can look generic, relieve has an old look that gives more permanence to the mural," says Glassman.

8. Panels and Pergolas

Trellis Structures

Defined areas like pocket-size patios, outdoor kitchens, and decks are by and large easier to screen than a whole yard. By edifice an enclosure effectually them, you lot can re-create the intimate feeling of eating or entertaining indoors, while still enjoying beautiful weather.

Enclosures may take the shape of a slatted-height wooden pergola covered with climbing vines on a patio or a pair of fixed lattice panels along two sides of a raised deck. Prefab iron gazebos tin can exist set right on the ground and surrounded with potted vines and hanging baskets to fill some of the gaps.

ix. Lattice, Wood Panels, and Ornamental Ironwork

Photograph past Michael Glassman & Associates

Screens made from lattice, shutter similar louvered wood panels, or sections of ornamental fe with anchoring posts can be set into the basis to enclose a cozy corner or make a U-shaped structure that preserves desirable views. For maximum flexibility, consider placing the post ends in lightweight planters with wheels; to anchor them, add concrete plugs to the anxiety or set the posts in gravel. That mode, they can exist moved around to create more than open up space when y'all're entertaining.

Semitransparent structures may not provide complete privacy, but they add a lot of visual interest to a mural and allow natural light and breezes in. "They create a comforting sense of containment and a psychological buffer," says Stephanie Hubbard, a mural architect in Boston and TOH Television receiver regular.

10. Using Fountains to Mask Racket

Photograph by Amy Gallo

Even if you're not literally seeing center to eye with the neighbors, yous might still be close enough to hear their conversation. Or you may exist bothered by intrusive traffic dissonance or buzzing AC compressors. In such cases, adding a fountain to your privacy program tin can mask unwanted sounds with pleasant white noise. These range from off-the-shelf, plug-in units that sit on a table or hang on the wall to custom designs that become a major focal point.

Go along in mind that flowing h2o becomes louder the farther it falls and the more tiers it travels over. Michael Glassman, a landscape designer in Sacramento, California, warns that it'southward possible for a fountain to be too loud, which is but equally disruptive as the racket you're trying to hide. "The sound of rushing water might exist inviting when guests arrive, but y'all don't desire to have to yell over the din at dinner," says Glassman, who designed the wall and h2o feature shown here. All fountains have a recirculating pump, and so if y'all get an adjustable one, you're sure to notice a audio level that'south soothing.

Source: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/yards/21018864/10-ways-to-add-privacy-to-your-yard

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