[Eblana]

Hi All,

Need your advice urgently!  My house is on a hill which means that the house next to me is higher than ours.  I get on great with the people who own the house next to me but they have a creepy adult son who has never worked a day in his life, he is supposed to be their carer although there is nothing wrong with them, they do all the cooking etc while he sits around smoking and on his computer which I discovered he was running off my internet (one of his nephews pals with my son and he got the code when he was staying over in our house).  I cut the Internet off on him and next thing I knew he was out building a deck and gazebo from their back door, brilliant thought I he is finally doing something practical/nice for his parents.  How wrong was I!!  The deck is right in line with my kitchen windows and creepy is sitting out on it smoking and gawping in at me, judging by the amount of time that he is out there at the moment during bad weather I would guess that he will be a permanent feature come the summer.  I can't raise the wall between us because it is already full legal height on my side so I have to come up with a plan to block his view before summer.

Along the wall between our two houses I have my coal bunker and heating unit which are both brick built flat roofed houses about 4.5 ft high.  I saw some 2 ft high x 4 ft long x 1.5 ft wide plastic planters being sold off cheap in a garden centre yesterday and was thinking of putting 3 of these along the roof of the coal bunker/heating unit and planting them up with dense evergreen shrubs.  Would anyone have any suggestions of something that would fit the bill, I was thinking maybe pittosporum and ceanothus but not sure if these would be ok in planters.  Would there be a bambo that would thicken up quickly but maybe only grow to about 3 or 4 ft as I don't want it to be ridiculously tall.

I really appreciate any advice you can give me.

[Goosegirl]

Oh dear - what an awful problem! Can you erect any trellis onto the top of the wall as an immediate fix? As for dense evergreens for your tubs, 2' high should accommodate things like upward-growing conifers, ceanothus, tall grasses, and I like euonymus which comes in various shades of green and yellow or green and white which can be persuaded to grow upwards if supported, eucalyptus gunii, ficus and mahonia (). There is a dwarf bamboo but can't remember its name. You will need to ensure the roofs will take the weight of the tubs, soil and shrubs.

[Eblana]

Thanks GG euonymus and the grasses are a great idea.  Going off to the garden centre now to have a look.  The roofs should be ok from a weight point of view but to be on the safe side my OH so going to put Steel brackets out from the wall across the roof to spread the load.  I might chance putting 2 ft trellis up as the wall is only about 4 foot high on his side at least then if he does complain I will know for sure that he is deliberately staring in.

[Goosegirl]

See if you can get any advice re- legal height of wall as there is quite a difference between yours and his. I can't see a trellis being a problem, but it's worth checking out. You may not get much growth now but if you prune hard in spring, the euonymus will shoot out all ways. How about Griselina, Laurels and Viburnum tinus that would also provide an evergreen screen.

[Eblana]

My OH did some investigation today and we have discovered that we can raise the wall by one block. The legal max height is 2 Mtrs which is 6ft 6 in and when we measured it earlier it is in fact only 5ft 6 in so another block will be going on this weekend if the rain stops.  We can also put open trellis on top (can't be wood lap fencing) but we were advised to make sure that it is on our side of the wall and not to go any higher than 8 ft which will keep it under 6ft 6in on his side with it so that he has no grounds for complaint.

I bought the planters anyway yesterday, storm barney had whipped up by the time I got to the garden centre so I didn't get a chance to look at the plants but hopefully I will get a chance tomorrow.

[New shoot]

Trellis gives you the option for some climbers, which will create a screen and still give you room to plant a couple of other things in front of them. 

Evergreen honeysuckle, clematis armandii, trachelospermum jasminoides or even some of the more decorative ivies would be there year round and stop him staring in.  They will all need regular watering, so it might be worth rigging up a simple drip feed watering system.  If the space at the front of the troughs is fairly limited, you could still squeeze in some trailing plants like aubretia or other rocketry plants, just to soften the look of it all from your side of the wall.

The trouble with a lot of the evergreen screening shrubs is that they do get very large, so they will get pot bound very quickly in the planters you have.  Climbers would fare better 

[snowdrops]

Could you pleach(sp) some type of tree or shrub,so it bare at the stem but then trained & tied to its own trellis frame work made from bamboo canes. I've seen pleased limes & some others but I can't think what. It's something I wanted to try for a spot in our garden. You would be able to go as high as you like because it would be in pots on your side

[Eblana]

Feeling much happier and more secure now.

We raised the wall and put a strip of trellis on top, my OH put extra supports from the wall out across the roof of the coal bunker and boiler house and I have put four of the containers along it which I have planted up with a variety of shrubs and grasses (most of which were on the bargain table in local nurseries).  These have nicely blocked his view.  There was just one corner left where the coal bunker is set back from the gate pillars, we managed to get a nice big square pot in there on the ground with a good bamboo in it.  I also popped some tulip and daff bulbs into all the pots so come the spring will have some colour.  I am delighted with the outcome and am only sorry i didn't do it years ago as it really tidies up what was a drab area. 

[snowdrops]

Sounds like you have come off the better for deciding to stop your peeping Tom. Any pictures to show us?😊

[Goosegirl]

I'm so pleased you got a quick (and legal) solution to your peeping-tom that is also going to look good in years to come. Good for you!