Help my neighbor is a creeper Plant ideas for privacy hedge?

Green giant arborvitaes, cyptomeria and leyland cypress grows big and fast. You will need about 15 feet of a bed.

I'd give the Laylandi a miss as these plants tree's are the scurge of any garden, I know, I know you have supposed to keep them in trim, grown to a certain hight and all that silly suggestions BUT, most gardens who have these end up giving up on the care for them as they grow faster than Topsy, they remove all the moisture out the soil, IF cut back too far they cant regrow again and your left with bare brown stems that the neighbours can see through anyway. I would keep the Bamboo cared for just now and take time to search for your other types of Barrier and privacy selection. you have to live with your selection for a long time and cost has to be a factor too.

Been thinking about you Poobear, hope your 4th July lake gathering went well and no unsavoury incidents were reported.
Best regards. WeeNel.

Leylandi Cypress are worse than that here.
They get several diseases that will kill them just about the time that they are taking their rightful place in the garden. Grow them fast, sure. Then they get the right size for a screen, and watch them turn brown!

to flower child - the bamboo fence has a warranty on it!! Some have 15 years, some 30, depending on what you get. They so far seem SUPER durable. They are pre put together in sections of either 6 ft tall by 6ft, 8ft, or 10 ft long (depending on which length you buy). They are held together with a thick wire that is strung on the top 3rd and bottom 3rd of the bamboo, so you do not even see it. They also have 2 different thicknesses of bamboo, and some of mine are the thicker ones, and some are the thinner ones, and I personally can't tell any difference, but the thicker ones are more expensive. (I didn't even realize this until after I got home). Yes, I had chain link up and zip tied the bamboo fence to the chain link. It was very easy to do, just the bamboo is VERY heavy, so you might need a second person to help hold while one person does the zip ties. You would need something to hold the bamboo up. Whether you put it against an old wood fence or whatever, it won't stand on it's own. These bamboo fence sections were not cheap though (at least in my opinion), and they did have cheaper options for bamboo privacy fences, but they looked really flimsy and you could see through them more, although, if you do what one person suggests and put a fabric barrier like a fabric to keep weeds out or something first and then zip tie the cheaper bamboo fence that seems like it would work awesome.

weenel - things are getting better! Although the 4th of july our fireworks contractor sort of was a joke, and the show was delayed by an hour.. and then one of the 8 inchers blew up on the barge and a guy got blasted into the water! (he was totally ok and everything!). It was a little scary watching though!

Tree update - before I even got a chance to call an arborist the large dead branch BROKE, and luckily it landed in the only opening between my fence, plants and house.. self pruning of the tree I guess..??

I also have arborvitaes as a "living fence" on my street side of the house and I love them! They need a lot of water though!

You sure got lucky with the tree branch. Usually something like that is practically guaranteed to land on something expensive.

Tx Flower Child, The weed mat might work, doubled up with the cheaper bamboo screening, but I think shade cloth is made for sun exposure and might last longer. Especially if you are in Tx. Even the sun is brighter and hotter there, right?
The cheaper bamboo screening is usually torn apart by a combination of wind and water. It holds a lot of water when it gets soaked, and is heavy. Then a wind comes and blows it around. The strings that hold the cheap stuff together start rotting and fall apart. Then the bamboo (with less support) starts rotting, and the slats sag and separate.
I would think you could get a couple of years out of it, maybe 3-4 if you installed it right (lots of support). But it is not a long term material, and looks really bad as it falls apart.

O.M.G Poobear, Hope you got all the cartoon behavour with the fire works at the lake and everything that happened on movie camera, send it to one of those Programs on TV where they pay for the funny things happening to people, the cash you can get can help pay for more stuff in your garden ha, ha, ha, I know it was a really serious situation BUT, my imagination has run riot thinking about the dud fireworks and the poor guy landing in the water, honestly I'm not being horrible or crewel but after reading your your update
re 4th July at the lake, it sounds like such harmless fun till you really think about it.
Best regards. WeeNel.

Back to the bamboo fence issue. Poorbear, where did you get yours? Originally I thought I read that you got it from a big box type story. Now that I have scanned back thru all of this, I think you never said that. Plus you did say it was expensive. When I was getting quotes to replace my cedar fence a few years back, I realized I couldn't afford it. I looked on the 'net and the bamboo fencing there was way expensive. The big box stores here just sell the flimsy stuff. I was hoping you had a magic answer.


This message was edited Aug 12, 2013 12:17 PM

Sorry for the late response to this tx_flower_child, hopefully you found the answer before my 2 month slow response..

But, yes I got the bamboo fence from a big box store - Lowes. Here is the link to the product

http://www.lowes.com/pd_417989-45526-LW-DS-BF20_4294936085__?productId=3864495&Ntt=bamboo&pl=1¤tURL=%3FNtt%3Dbamboo&facetInfo=

It is expensive, and the one online says it only has a 1 year warranty, but the tag says either 15 year warranty or 30, I can't remember and I threw it away. I got the Mahogany color, although I think because my bamboo is in direct intense sun the color has faded (which I think makes it look better and really cool). They are not flimsy at all, and pretty much block out someone being able to see through them. You can sort of see the chain link fence I have them zip tied to when the light is a certain way, but it's not really noticeable to anyone but me since I know the chain link is behind it.

If you have an ugly fence, you could just keep it up and zip tie these onto the side facing your property.

Even though they are a little more expensive than I would have preferred, it is the most complimented part of my gardens. I think it is one of the best choices I have made to my property! I think the investment is worth the cost 100X more! Ever since I put them up, it is like my creeper neighbor disappeared, I don't have to see the trash on his property, and I believe it helps keep the weeds from spreading to my side, and it keeps his unkept hedges from over-taking my garden!

I did purchase some privacy slats for my shade garden for the time being, as they were much cheaper than the bamboo, and I noticed that they were 2x more for the exact same product at home depot.. I didn't really understand how Home Depot charged $70 something (just as expensive as the bamboo!) for 10 feet, but at lowes the privacy slats were only $30 something for the exact same name brand, size, and color.

poobear - so good to hear from you as I've been thinking about you lately and wondering how things have been going. Sounds like things are much better for you now.

I may have to wait a year, but I think that the fence on one side of my house was originally put up by my neighbor. He died last year but his estate is still in probate. People are chomping at the bit to buy this house due to location, location, location. And I'm sure whoever buys it will tear it down and build a much bigger house (grrrr) and thus be able to overlook my backyard. Not that I run around naked, I just don't like the idea in general. However, the tear down trend is happening all over this area. But I digress. When I was talking to my neighbor's tenant, he pointed out that the fence's 'good' side faced me and that was a good indication that the fence actually 'belonged' to my neighbor. If true, I'm sure a new neighbor would replace it. The fence on the opposite side is about an inch away from the other neighbor's fence. (No, don't know why that was done.) So that side can be torn down, no worries. The only section left is the newest one. In summary (ha! finally getting there!), if I'm lucky, things will be dandy in a year or so.

Your fence looks really nice. Thanks for the pictures.

BTW, saw a wonderful picture of a fence today that should make everyone smile. If I can figure out how to either copy/paste it or link to it, I'll come back and do so.

It does look good poobear! And I am SO glad things are now comfortable for you in your own garden.

I'm curious what you mean by privacy slats -- I couldn't detect anything besides the bamboo in your pictures.