Are you looking for privacy ideas for your
yard, maybe tall, narrow, fast growing low cost privacy, obviously fences trees
and shrubs are great options for privacy. But in this video, I want to go
beyond these and provide you with some creative alternatives to explore and
consider ideas that may not be the first things that come to your mind. All of the ideas in this video can
be adapted to different spaces, styles, and made using various
resources, plants, materials. So see what you can do with what you
have on hand or what you could easily. For example, you may not be able to
build a designer magazine worthy Perla, but maybe you can zip tie some bamboo
together to create a nice looking frame for a few outdoor curtain. Speaking of privacy and seating areas. I talked about this more in my last
video, but you should consider starting by prioritizing your privacy areas,
finding ways to bring privacy solutions closer to you because the closer to
the privacy solution, the smaller it needs to be, identify the parts of your
yard that need privacy, the soonest. And oftentimes these are going to be. Outdoor seating areas, decks,
patios, any sort of outdoor room, typically pretty close to your house
when possible, consider closing in your seating area or framing it in. And there are many different ways you can
do this framing in a deck patio or seating area with some kind of shade structure, a
canopy, or even a Perla of some sort can act as a great starting point for privacy. You can buy a popup canopy. Tie together frames again
of sticks or bamboo. You can craft a frame out of pipes. You could buy a per Golic kit. The reason I mentioned this is a
consideration first is because when you have some sort of structure or frame, you
open up the opportunity to easily hang or secure privacy solutions from the frame. And of course you can close in one side
with panels or close in an entire wall. Panels of course are a very
common privacy solution. There are places that sell wooden
privacy panels and screens. You can upcycle old board stores,
affix them to current deck rails. You could stake, uh, put stakes in the
ground and then secure the panels to them. You could find some panels
that are free standing though. Please be aware of, be aware of wind
and make, make sure nothing tips over. Cattle panels are very simple wire panels
that can be purchased at many farm stores. They can be easily secured,
upright to create these low cost, lightweight privacy panels or trellis. They're quick. They're easy to work with. You can zip tie them defenses structures
or stakes in the ground on their own. Of course they don't provide any
privacy, but they create an affordable instant and easy to install, frame
or structure, perhaps grow vines up. Them apply a little extra creativity,
maybe tying fabric to them. For example, hanging art,
attaching bamboo mat. Similarly outdoor curtains are
fantastic and incredibly underutilized. In my opinion, sometimes you
can use waterproof or water resistant curtain materials. Sometimes you could buy a can of some
sort of waterproofing spray and apply that to a fabric you like, and other times
you could just bring curtains in and out seasonally, especially if you have some
sort of rings or hooks or, uh, a curtain rod that's really easy to bring, uh, put
up, take down, bring in and out season. Just keep in mind that the
curtains will blow in the breeze. So consider fabric panels, right. Or, you know, time down, somehow add
weights to the bottom of the curtains. If you have a structure, sometimes
an outdoor curtain can be as easy as bringing a spring rod outdoors. Right. They don't have to be
complicated necessarily. You don't have to use fabric curtains,
either consider any curtain material. There are tons of different
options out there. For example, bamboo mats or bamboo roll
fencing, it's all around one of the greatest instant privacy tools, because
you can hang them from a panel, a trellis, uh, structure as a privacy curtain. You can zip tie them to a fence. You could even use them to
increase the height of a fence, a shorter fence in particular. Uh, they could provide privacy. as is right. Or they can even be used as a trellis. You can grow vines up them. They also age nicely, and they kind
of disappear into the background of your gardener landscape
as the color kind of fades. Similarly, wood lattice is a
fantastic material for adding privacy. Creating trellis or panels are just
adding height to an existing fence. You can purchase these fun
extendable, lattice panels as well. And note that there are lattice with. That come in various patterns and styles. So if you aren't a fan of the classic
diagonal, look, consider the other types. Note that if you're considering adding
height to your fences, extending your fences in some way, there are
sometimes neighborhood association rules specifically against this
or other local rules in general. Uh, look, look into any rules before you
do anything in your landscape design. Uh, but this is specifically
something that can come up. So be sure to double check. If you're not allowed to increase the
height of your fence, consider perhaps adding a trellis into your yard. Trellises alone can provide varying
levels of instant privacy, but of course, trellises and vines often go together. Vines are a fantastic, super narrow,
fast growing privacy solution. So if you're thinking that a tall
narrow evergreen tree like are providing something like that's going to be
your only option, consider a vine on a trellis, maybe even an evergreen. also, don't be afraid of a vine that
goes dormant in the winter, but at least behind some kind of Woody structure,
like if you've seen a grape vine in the winter, it still provides a ton
of privacy, even without leaves. And in the summer you get. If you would like help researching
plant ideas in general, choosing the right plant for the right place
in your yard, wherever you live. I have a free mini course. I created it's called how
to choose the perfect plant. It's free. It's about an hour long total
to access the minicourse. You just have to create a, a
username password so that you can keep track of your progress
as you move through the course. So it's linked in the description
below this video, if that would help. Even a small trellis can
provide a lot of privacy. If it is placed close to you, perhaps
close to your patio, close to your seating area, just as an example, or
if it's placed close to the source of a privacy problem, like blocking
a particular vantage point neighbors window, for example, NA neighbors
seating area, put it closer to the outside edge of your property. Uh, so again, closer to you, closer
to the source of the privacy problem, you can also sometimes grow vines
up the railings of your deck. For example, to add a little
bit of privacy though, that. Sometimes make deck maintenance a little
bit more challenging and some fines are going to be more aggressive than others. Just keep that in. And speaking of aggressive plants,
are you ready for some controversy? Let's talk about bamboo. And bamboo is one of my top
privacy solutions in landscape design in general, but of course
bamboo can spread aggressively. And for this reason, I know a lot
of folks who say just across the board avoid bamboo, but I'm going
to risk it all by saying that while. Bamboo needs to be respected. It's not all bad. And there are some amazing
things about bamboo. It grows super tall and it's super narrow. It's it grows really quickly too. And, uh, it's super tough. It's evergreen. It's gorgeous. Consider it a tall, skinny
fer alternative, right? An Arbor VI alternative. And some consider there to be two
general kinds of bamboo running bamboo and clumping bamboo. And from there, every kind of bamboo can
have a slightly different personality. Some are just going to be
more aggressive than others. The general category clumping
bamboo is just going to spread more slowly, kind of as a growing clump. That again, even this club,
this, this can outgrow its space. However, it's not going to
be as aggressive as a running bamboo, which is the kind that
kind of sends up shoots every. Big plastic. Bamboo barriers are a
bit of a pain to put in. They have some downsides, but many
find them to be a great solution. If they want to plant bamboo
without it taking over the universe. I am also a huge fan of bamboo
in containers for incredible tall, narrow privacy, moveable,
tall, narrow privacy too. And I have clumping bamboo growing
in these big nursery pots with, you know, kind of like a big edge on
them that makes them easier to move around wherever privacy is needed. Most. It's really hard to beat tall,
narrow evergreen, fast growing absolutely gorgeous privacy. I love bamboo as the,
especially in containers. In fact, container gardening in
general can be a fantastic fast privacy solution, especially for smaller spaces. You can even grow some
trees and containers, right? You can grow a vine, a petrels, and
a long skinny container, and the containers themselves add height to
whatever privacy plant you are growing. It's hard to find a plant that
will grow two feet taller in a day, but you can plant anything
in a two foot tall container in a. Similar to containers raised beds can add
height to plantings and provide additional privacy that way, not just for vegetables. They also do not need to be made of wood. Consider making raised beds that are
edged with bricks stones, uh, or simply just mounted gently mounted, or kinda
like a berm without any border and berms. Similarly can also sometimes
be helpful to add a little bit of height to your privacy, uh,
plantings before you even plant them. If you have access to top soil,
perhaps after a construction project. Perhaps consider strategically
mounting the soil up in some areas to add some initial height to
whatever you plant burns can be sculpted to have very natural shapes. Speaking of new construction, if you
plan on adding any elements to your yard, like a shed, a play structure,
greenhouse, uh, the list goes on, right? Just consider placing these
elements in a way that maximizes the privacy in your yard. If you're going to be installing a
shed, you may as well place this shed somewhere that blocks the noise from
the street, for example, or maybe blocks a gap in the trees, a fast
growing tall narrow privacy solution. That's commonly overlook. Ornamental grasses. There are some species of
ornamental grasses that can grow very tall in just a few years. Some are even evergreen though. Even the ones that die back or go dormant
in the winter can be left untrimmed. Uh, some people do this. They like the winter interest. Uh, it adds additional privacy. And then in the springtime you
can trim it back and then it quickly will grow tall again. And it'll remain tall for
the rest of the season. Ornamental grasses are
also great in containers. Depends on the grass you choose how
densely it grows, how tall it grows. There are countless options. If you're looking for fast growing summer
privacy plants, don't forget that many annual plants grow to be quite tall. Quite quickly. Annual vines tend to be
really fast growing as well. I've known folks who plant green beans
like Scarlet runner beans, another example of a, a beautiful dry bean
that gets pretty flowers, sweet peas. They've grown these things up
trellises, or even just strings for fast summer privacy, cosmos and
sunflowers are fast growing annuals. I personally love and
now I should mention. Remember that not all privacy
should be fast privacy. Sometimes you need privacy as quickly as
possible, but it's also worth investing in trees and plants that take a long
time to fill in that provide long term privacy, cooling shade, increased property
value, clean the air replaces, lost habitat for wildlife and all the other
benefits that large plants and trees. When you can be sure that you're
balancing investing in instant, overnight privacy solutions with privacy
solutions that are time investments that will provide benefits, privacy
benefits for years or even lifetimes. So this is the second video in
a series of videos about privacy landscape design for privacy. So if you haven't seen my first video, I
will pop that up on the screen right here. Right now you may be interested
in that and welcome to garden. Academy by the way. Uh, this is a relatively
new YouTube channel. I'm Eve Hanlin. I'm a landscape designer. I'm a horticulturist, I'm from the
Pacific Northwest corner of the USA. And I'm creating these videos and
online landscape design resources to help you with your next garden
project and to help you do more. Great things with your yard,
with the opportunity you have to do some landscaping. So I have we're in the process of
creating some online courses as well. I have a wait list for my design, your
own landscape layout course, it walks you through the process of creating
a two scale hand drawn map, and then designing the layout, how to prioritize
and layout all of the elements. In this design area. So if you're interested in that again,
that's linked in the description below. Do you have any privacy solutions that
you come up with after watching this video or things you've done in the past? If you'd like to share those in the
comments below, it's really cool to read the comments, uh, and learn what you're
doing, what other people are doing. Your comment might inspire some new idea
that could really help someone else out. So please share in the comments
below if you have any cool, uh, fast growing instant creative privacy. I hope that this video has
provided you with some new ideas. Thank you so much for
watching and happy gardening.
