If you crave peace and quite and privacy; screening with vegetation can provide multiple benefits. Can you imagine coming home to your own vacation spot? Perhaps a place to grill and eat outside, lay in a hammock or a little niche outside where you can read your favorite book? Creating a buffer between you and whatever is around is important to achieve that sense of peace. Vegetation can both screen from sight and screen sound. It can also reduce chilly winds and stop blowing dust. Screening can also include edible fruits and vegetables. Even asparagus can form a great mid-summer screen with it’s huge, shrub like vegetation.
What bothers us most about modern camping is that campgrounds, in many places, have cut down all of the vegetation between campsites. “Communing with nature” is now all about looking at someone else’s hulking RV with the television blasting at the next site thirty feet away. Who wants that? You can achieve a higher quality outdoor experience at home - even on the smallest city lot.
To achieve lasting screening you will want to make sure that your plan includes appropriate plants. Shady areas require special skills in picking plants that will retain their lower branches in the shade. A common mistake that many people make is planting a sun loving plant in the shade and then wondering why it is so spindly and not offering any privacy.
Another common mistake is just planting one species in a row. This is boring and may not be thick enough to provide the screening desired. The best situation is to plant at least several species and make the area deep enough so the plants complement each other in providing the level of screening you desire.
Some people are concerned about planting too closely, but want instant screening. Our suggestion for this is to plan to thin the area in a couple of years and use the plants elsewhere or cut them down and use them in another way – fuel, mulch, rustic furniture, posts, etc. |
