Outdoor living is one of the best parts of being a homeowner. Have a private outdoor space to enjoy with your friends and family. A place to hold a family barbecue, a birthday party, a place for your pets and children to play, or simply a peaceful and private place to sit and enjoy a glass of wine.
However, you plan to use your outdoor space, creating a landscape design with adequate privacy and a comfortable atmosphere can greatly impact the enjoyment of your outdoor activities. But how can you create privacy if your outdoor space hasn’t already been designed and landscaped with privacy in mind? The following tips will give you ideas on creating the privacy you want in your outdoor living areas.
Solid Privacy Fences
Fences are the most basic and common way to create privacy in your landscape design. A six-foot fence quickly provides a physical and visual barrier between properties. It provides maximum privacy and noise reduction.
A fence is a good solution in yards where privacy is essential, but space is limited since fencing doesn’t take up as much space as hedges, trees, or large plants. Fencing also keeps children or pets from escaping your yard while keeping out trespassers. Fences can be made from various materials, but a wood or vinyl composite is the best option for privacy.
Garden Structures
If you have a small outdoor area, a fence may feel too confined for your limited space. Areas like patios, terraces, decks, and outdoor kitchens can be easily screened with open panels, trellises, and arbors. By forming an enclosure around your outdoor spaces using garden structure materials, you can create privacy for your outdoor activities and entertaining without building a perimeter around your property. Climbing vines, hanging baskets, and colorful flowers fixed on your trellises, panels, or arbors create the desired privacy. These garden structures provide an appealing and affordable option for privacy in small outdoor spaces.
Outdoor Fountains
After installing a fence and garden structures, you won’t be able to see your neighbors, and they won’t be able to see you, but you may still be able to hear each other when you’re in your yard. If you’re in a neighborhood lots that are small and built close together, you may hear unwanted and unpleasant noises like barking dogs, buzzing air conditioner compressors, televisions, stereos, and conversations.
By adding an outdoor fountain to your landscape design, you can mask unwanted noises and replace them with the soothing sounds of nature. You can build a custom outdoor fountain or purchase a pre-made model depending on your yard size and budget.
When choosing a fountain, note that the further the waterfalls, the louder it become, so choose a fountain size and style that provides the right amount of noise reduction and privacy with a soothing sound level for your landscape design.
Trees
Planting shade trees can obscure a neighbor’s view from a second-story window or veranda. Deciduous shade trees can grow from 25-feet to 60-feet high. When planted near a property line or in the backyard, their large canopies provide privacy and good shade in hot summer months for you and your pets. Deciduous plants usually lose their foliage in late fall and winter, so during these months, the trees’ bare branches allow the sun to shine brightly into the house for added light and warmth. On the other hand, Evergreen plants will act as a buffer and barrier and provide maximum privacy for your landscape design all year.
Shrubs and Hedges
Shrubs and hedges work in your landscape design to provide privacy whether the yard is large or small. Where space is tight, fast-growing columnar evergreens like Italian cypress and arborvitae can provide a solution for separating yards or blocking sight lines out of windows. Shrubs and hedges can provide a privacy screen, and unlike fences they’re not typically restricted by city ordinances that limit their height or require permits to install.
Large Plants
Investing in larger plants for your landscape design is best when your goal is privacy. It’s tempting to buy plants in gallon containers on sale at local nursery or home improvement store, but you will be waiting a long time for those small plants to grow enough to provide any privacy. Instead, buy fewer, larger plants that will immediately impact your privacy needs. For quicker results, choose plants that are four-feet or five-feet tall. But remember to pay close attention to growth patterns and care and maintenance requirements.
Whatever the size of your backyard, with a little landscape design work, you can maximize privacy to enjoy the outdoors. By blocking the eyes of peering neighbors and the sounds of intrusive noises, you can spend time in a backyard that’s comfortable, peaceful, and private all year long.
If your landscape design needs to be tweaked to create more privacy, call Golf Greens Texas at 806-559-7048.
