Our house has a few spots that lack privacy — something we’ll be mentioning more than once. It’s not extreme, but after moving from a place where we could almost walk around naked in the backyard (we didn’t) to one where we feel exposed even inside (we don’t), we notice it. One of the most obvious spots is our “alley,” a straight sight-line to our neighbor’s back deck (you can even see their umbrella in the distance).
The photo above is a little older, and the shot below shows how nature has already started to fill in the gap for us.
Still, I have my moments of self-consciousness. Once, the smoke detector near the alley went off just after bedtime. I found myself standing on a chair in my boxers, changing a battery in front of our floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors while the light was on — a great way to wave hello to the neighbors.
We’re not the type to close all our curtains and blinds every night. We like sliding doors and large picture windows because they bring in light and make rooms feel open. Closing them all would be too much maintenance for us, so we decided a more permanent, low-maintenance solution would be better: plant fast-growing evergreens to block the shared sight-line between houses.
Our plan is to recreate that “wooded” feel around the house. It will take time for the trees to mature, but in the long run they should give us privacy without nightly curtain choreography. We do use faux wood blinds in bedrooms for privacy, but in living areas we prefer an open feel paired with natural screening outdoors.
For the job we chose three Leyland cypress trees, which we picked up on sale for $9.99 each at Home Depot (they were $19.99 at Lowe’s). Gardeners recommended them because they’re fast-growing, evergreen (so they won’t drop leaves and leave us exposed in winter), can become quite large, and are generally hardy and low-maintenance. They’re often suggested as a privacy-screen solution for those reasons. Mature specimens can reach about 30 feet tall and 10–15 feet wide, so they’ll provide substantial coverage.
We planted them in a staggered triangle arrangement, spacing each tree about 10–15 feet apart as recommended. This setup lets each tree layer in front of and behind its neighbors, creating denser coverage without the trees crowding and competing directly with each other.
Before planting, we cleared out some dead boxwoods and tidied the area.
During the cleanup I even met a little frog (or maybe a toad).
Despite my new amphibian acquaintance, I dug in the cypress trees on my own. The frog didn’t help — certainly not enough to count as a gardening assistant — but it was amusing company.
Here they are planted and ready to grow. Not spectacular yet, but they’ve only just begun.
With some watering, warm weather, and time, this trio should transform from small nursery trees into a dense privacy screen.
Eventually they’ll look much fuller. I did a quick edit on one image to imagine the result; in reality they won’t have the blue tint I used to highlight the idea, but it gives a sense of the coverage we’re aiming for.
While planting I found more surprises in the shrubbery — small discoveries left by the previous owners. Among them was a plastic duck, perched on a log.
Finding that duck felt like a sign. When we moved into our first house, the previous owner had left a fake duck head on a fence post — a quirky touch that made us smile. I left this full-bodied duck where I found him; with the cypresses in place he won’t be able to spy on us for long, and our daughter will likely enjoy discovering him in a year or two.
Have you planted Leyland cypress or another fast-growing tree or shrub to add privacy? Do you rely on blinds and curtains, or do you prefer open windows with outdoor screening? Ever found a random faux duck on your property, or made a new animal friend while gardening? We’d love to hear about your experiences and recommendations for creating natural privacy screens.