If you’re looking for a natural way to create privacy in your garden, look no further than landscape design experts Bestall & Co, who may have just the solution.
To prevent those nosy neighbours from peeking at your lawn, you don’t have to erect a fence or a wall – you can do so with plants instead, the company advised in a TikTok video. “There’s a wide variety of plants you can use to create privacy in your garden,” they said.
“Bamboo is a good option and it’s pretty instant as long as you protect the rest of your garden from it’s roots with a barrier,” Bestall & Co explained in their clip. While pleached trees can be an alternative, they’re not suitable on sloped gardens.
In these cases, the company suggests: “What about using some kind of standard lollipop type [plants] ones – such as laurels, for example – because they’re evergreen and they give you a ball of foliage? If you plant them on a slope, you could almost merge them into one. It wouldn’t be as formal as pleached trees, but it does work better when you have sloping ground.”
In a follow-up video, a second member of Bestall & Co issued her advice from a patioed garden with large plant pots in which to grow concealing shrubs. “If you don’t want to use a fence to conceal an area, why not consider a prunus lusitanica [also known as Portuguese laurel and small leaf laurel] in planters?” she asked.
The plants serves as an effective way of “blocking out a neighbouring property” – something that shouldn’t be the focus in your garden, according to Bestall & Co. “It creates a lovely green backdrop,” the employee emphasised. “You could also use screening to block out unsightly views and features that you don’t want to draw attention to.”
She closed by suggesting alternative plants including taxus bacatta which is “great for shady spots” and a “lovely dark green foliage” or for those looking for something softer, a miscanthus starlight may suffice – a “beautiful, ornamental grass”.
Returning to bamboo, Bestall & Co re-emphasised the barrier and the importance of containing the roots to avoid unwanted spiky ones emerging in the middle of the lawn. “They can even appear on the other side of your garden 10 metres away,” they warned. “It can be a bit of a nightmare to get rid of.”
“Love that grass plant!” one TikTok user responded. A second hailed the ideas: “Beats the plastic rubbish many have that’s for sure.”
Others advised against planting bamboo in the ground, however, one of whom commented: “Don’t plant bamboo. Keep it in pots on top of concrete. It’s so invasive!” Another agreed: “I’ve just bought a house that has this, I’ve bought bamboo killer cause it spreads everywhere.”
Elsewhere in the comments though, one TikTok user pointed out: “Bamboo also work well in pots – we moved ours into pots from the ground and seems indestructible.” And a second advised: “Clump forming is okay I’ve found. My clump forming bamboo has been in for about five years and has got bushier but hasn’t spread.”
