Tall Hedge/Bamboo for Screening With Narrow Footprint/Depth? What's Possible?

blobert · 29-07-2020 01:03AM #1

Hello,

We're going to be putting in planning permission for a new build bungalow in the next week or two.

The length of the new house will run close to a boundary wall (about 1.2m tall) which backs on to lots of neighbouring houses

At the moment there is about a 4m tall hedge running all along this wall on our side which blocks out the neighbours but which is mostly dead/turned brown. We're planning to get rid of this.

We want the new house to be close to the boundary wall but have enough room to plant a hedge/bamboo in the gap also for screening purposes.

Ideally we'd like to have somthing that would grow up to 4-5m tall, be able to grow in shade of the house and also have a narrow footprint, ie the hedge/bamboos only be about 80cm deep. This way we could have the hedge there, still have a bit of a gap between house wall and hedge to trim it if needs be, but get the house as close to the wall as possible, ie not have to have a gap of several metres.

Let me know if you have any suggestions of what I could use to build an immediate screen that will grow tall but not require a lot of depth, if such an option exists. I'd be planning to buy semi mature plants of whatever we went with to get about a 2m+ screen immediately and then let it grow taller over time.

Had thought of bamboo like Phyllostachys Bissetii, some other bamboo or potentially laurel tree hedge but not sure if any of them would work in a narrow space.

Thanks in advance!

looksee · 29-07-2020 09:12AM

I'm afraid my response is a bit negative, but I am seeing a good few issues here.

First, if the house is to be so close to the hedge - approx a metre away as I understand you - then presumably there will not be any windows on that wall. There will not be any garden either, so why do you need a hedge at all?

Depending on other circumstances, a hedge or bamboo that close to a house wall is going to be rain-deprived. Bamboo will not be happy in a dry shadow.

The existing hedge is not in good condition, have you any idea why that is? Is it poor soil or is there another reason why it is not thriving? If a hedge is not happy at present, putting another one in the same soil and situation, plus a house wall beside it is not likely to be successful. You are not likely to need to do much clipping of a hedge side that is within a metre or two of a wall.

What will be on the other side of the hedge? A boundary wall? Or is the hedge the boundary. Is it alongside gardens?

The planners may have an opinion on this boundary/hedge so it might be as well to see what they say before making any decisions.

blobert · 29-07-2020 03:22PM

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it.

I've got architect/planning permission specialists talking to the planners about it, but what I'm wondering is what's feasible from a planting point of view, ie if I can get permission to build the house about 1.3m from the boundary wall if I can fit a hedge/bamboo in there and have space to access it if needed.

In response to your questions

looksee wrote: »

I'm afraid my response is a bit negative, but I am seeing a good few issues here.

First, if the house is to be so close to the hedge - approx a metre away as I understand you - then presumably there will not be any windows on that wall. There will not be any garden either, so why do you need a hedge at all?

The house will run alongside a low boundary wall (1.2m tall) this is at the end of the back gardens of a number of houses. At the moment when these guys look out from their gardens they see the back wall at the end of their garden and my 3.5m-4m hedge. There is currently a house on our site (which we plan to remove and replace with this new house) on the other side of the hedge that's about 2.5m from the boundary wall, ie we just want to move the new house closer to the wall. While there won't be any windows facing this way we dont want to leave our neighbours with an ugly house wall at the end of the garden. So planting a replacement hedge would be good in terms of the neighbours will have a similar view as at the moment.Potentially if it's about 4-5m tall it will also block our view of the top of their houses from our garden also which would be good.

Depending on other circumstances, a hedge or bamboo that close to a house wall is going to be rain-deprived. Bamboo will not be happy in a dry shadow.

I guess we could rig up some way of watering it or have the roof water drain down into there?

The existing hedge is not in good condition, have you any idea why that is? Is it poor soil or is there another reason why it is not thriving? If a hedge is not happy at present, putting another one in the same soil and situation, plus a house wall beside it is not likely to be successful. You are not likely to need to do much clipping of a hedge side that is within a metre or two of a wall.

It was planted about 30 years ago and was fine for most of that time I believe. I think it got majorly dried out in the hot weather of 2 years ago and was not watered in months. A gardener thought it may also be diseased in parts. It's not all dead, some bits are fine but it's a long hedge (about 75m) and bits of it are brown/dead looking. It's also not the nicest looking and very bulky (about 2m in depth) so we're keen to replace it with somthing less deep. Interestingly the part of the hedge that's currently beside the house, ie within about a metre or less of it, seems to be doing fine, its other parts of it which are dead.

What will be on the other side of the hedge? A boundary wall? Or is the hedge the boundary. Is it alongside gardens?

Yep, as per above it will be at the end of a row of houses beside us that our site runs along the back of. Depending on the hedge height the house will be hardly or not visible at all behind the hedge. The current house has a higher roof than the one we'll be replacing it with so the new house should in theory be less visible even if it's a little closer to the boundary wall

The planners may have an opinion on this boundary/hedge so it might be as well to see what they say before making any decisions.

As I say I'm just looking to see if what I'm looking to do is feasible from a planting point of view as opposed to planning.

standardg60 · 29-07-2020 07:09PM

Can you post a few pics of the existing hedge? I'd like to identify it first so could possibly give an opinion on it's health, usefulness etc. There is no way a 30 year old hedge would succumb to drought.
You would probably have to remove the part where the new house is going anyway as digging the foundation so close would destroy it anyway. Pleached trees would be an option for screening the house then.

westsidestory · 30-07-2020 12:16AM

Any plant that is kept narrow and tall will be in danger of toppling over. A solid trellis structure made of steel could be an option to trail ivy over, cut tight to structure annually and you have your green barrier.

blobert · 02-08-2020 12:01AM

standardg60 wrote: »

Can you post a few pics of the existing hedge? I'd like to identify it first so could possibly give an opinion on it's health, usefulness etc. There is no way a 30 year old hedge would succumb to drought.
You would probably have to remove the part where the new house is going anyway as digging the foundation so close would destroy it anyway. Pleached trees would be an option for screening the house then.

Here's a few pics:

Some large chunks of the hedge are brown, others are green. I'm not that mad on the appearance of the hedge even if it was all in good condition and, like I say it's also very big, probably taking up about 2m in depth where I'd like to try and get a narrower screen.

One of the ideas I'd had to replace the hedge was bamboos, this plant is growing in the garden also and is actually slightly taller than the existing hedge:

I quite like the look of bamboo and I think it would fit the bill in terms of being fast growing and probably able to grow in a narrow space. That said I know you have to be careful in that some species are very invasive, but I think a non running one like Phyllostachys Bissettii which I believe grows 4-6m could work.

If anyone had any advice on alternatives that would be good also.

Whatever I plant I'll need them to be at least 2m tall to begin with (and hopefully get up to 4-5m+) to provide an immediate screen as I dont want to be looking in at my neighbours for years till they grow.

The problem with the pleached trees I think would be price. The current hedge is just over 100m long. I suspect planting that in semi mature trees might be incredibly expensive vs bamboos, which I think would be cheaper.

Though as I say I know very little about this and so am looking for advice!

blobert · 02-08-2020 12:07AM

westsidestory wrote: »

Any plant that is kept narrow and tall will be in danger of toppling over. A solid trellis structure made of steel could be an option to trail ivy over, cut tight to structure annually and you have your green barrier.

Thanks, out at the front lane into the house I plan to attach trellis/security fence to the walls and grow either ivy or maybe pyracantha on it, the later being good from a security perspective also.

Where the above hedge runs all along the boundary wall we're also hoping to put in a wire security fence of about 2.5-3m against the wall and then grow whatever we're growing inside of that.

I suppose we could grow ivy on it but I'm not that mad on the appearance of it and also I'm not sure would it be as good a screen/sound barrier from neighbours as a hedge/bamboo.

We're also keen to get somthing that will grow to 4-5m+ tall (to block out views of our neighbours houses and in turn so they dont see the wall of our house at the end of their garden) so I dont think ivy would fit the bill unless we had a mega tall fence which I can't see the neighbours pleased with/would make the place look like a prison!

Lumen · 02-08-2020 07:27AM

Let your neighbours sort out their own screening and keep the space for access, at least until you've moved in and everyone can assess the visual impact and get to know each other.

They're as likely to object to a tall hedge as they are to the wall of a house, since it will be closer to them and require pruning on their side.

How would you trim the top of a 4-5m hedge with limited access?

Are you proposing to include the hedge in planning application? That's probably unwise.

standardg60 · 02-08-2020 03:58PM

It's a Leylandii hedge, and it's not recoverable due to years of trimming and or over trimming, so that's one decision made.
I see no issue with your bamboo suggestion.

Irish Steve · 03-08-2020 02:32PM

Based on experience here, bamboo on a boundary can be problematic, we had some spare bamboo a while back, and it got put in temporarily close to a boundary wall, it thrived, but the problem was that it managed very quickly to migrate under the wall into the adjoining property.

Fortunately, they liked it and encouraged it to keep growing, so it wasn't an issue, but if for some reason they'd not been happy to see it, managing the spread could have proved challenging.

blobert · 04-08-2020 04:33PM

Thanks for the replies guys.

I thought the bamboo might be a decent option as I need about a 100m long instant screen that will hopefully grow to about 4-5m tall and in the case of the bit running along the side of the house (about 30m) could be planted in a fairly narrow space.

If you have any other suggestions of what plants might work instead/also I'd appreciate it. We'd need an immediate full screen of about 2+m tall so I think that might rule out some options in terms of price.

I'd thought about laurel also, cherry or portuguese.

Looking here it seems I could get big 2.5m root ball plants for about €50 each which would do an instant screen I think and then hopefully grow bigger: https://hylandsnursery.ie/laurel-hedging/

Am thinking this plant might be wider than a bamboo screen though in terms of fitting in the side of the building.

looksee · 04-08-2020 05:38PM

When you take out the existing hedge and roots the ground will be in very poor condition. You will need to put in some fresh tops soil (there will be a soil deficit anyway) and as you are spending that much on a new hedge I would be inclined to get a professional opinion on the condition of the soil and what you might need to do.

I would imagine a 4m hedge (of any sort, including laurel) would be approaching 2m wide, full grown, anyway, so you will not save a lot of space. You will need some machinery to put in plants that size and quantity, so be sure there is enough space for a machine to get in. You would need an absolute minimum of 3 to 4 m between the boundary and the house wall, as far as I can judge.

Do your neighbours cut the other side, or how will it be managed? I can't imagine most people would want the job of cutting a 4 to 5 m hedge.

You might seriously look at the other suggestion of a steel frame/fence and a climber all over it.

Tall Hedge/Bamboo for Screening With Narrow Footprint/Depth? What's Possible?

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