Most gardens have an area that is best hidden from public view - perhaps it's the place where you have your useful, but possibly unattractive, compost heap. Or it might be other utilities, such as a recycling bin or a clothesline, which you would prefer to keep hidden. Including a garden screen in your landscape design can be the answer. A screen can also be helpful if you want to provide a permanent windbreak against a prevailing wind, or it can make a practical alternative to a fence, giving a feeling of privacy without enclosing an area completely.

Screens can be of natural or manmade materials, or a combination of both. If you want, in the course of time, to make a natural screen from a row of tall plants, a temporary manmade screen can protect the plants as they grow and finally be removed. Such a screen could be made of an inexpensive material, like shadecloth.

Manmade screen materials include narrow wooden lathes, trellis and glass. If you use a screen that has an open texture or that is translucent, the colour and texture of what is planted behind it remain visible and light can shine through. (Any glass should be sufficiently thick to be suited to outside use.) Solid screens are more useful on the boundaries of your property. They could be made of bricks or blocks, or wood. You need to make sure solid screens can stand up against high winds, especially if they are free standing, when the posts that support the screen should be set well into the ground.

Effective natural screens can be formed from a row of (non-spreading) bamboo, for example Gigantochloa sp var "Malay dwarf", which creates an easily controlled hedge. Cultivars of the evergreen Japanese holly (Ilex crenata), or needle-bearing Irish yew bushes (Taxus baccata) are also a suitable choice, although the yews are rather slow growing.

Not all screens are free standing. Screens can be attached to a structure such as a shed, or become an extension to the wall of a house, perhaps enclosing a courtyard. When used like this, the screen in effect makes up part of an outdoor "room" and it should be treated as a wall, paying attention to its line, color and form. For example, if your house is made of brick, then the outdoor screen that is attached to it should be made of a material that is in sympathy with the brick. You can use decorative panels within the screen, or plantings to complement it, that will tie it in to the structure from which it extends.

It is possible to construct a portable screen for your garden using hinged folding wooden panels of cedar, redwood or pine. Made in three parts like an indoor room screen, the outdoor screen can be decorated to suit your taste, and used with moveable potted plants of colors that complement the screen, to create instant privacy in any part of your garden.
Article by Steve Boulden. Steve is the creator of Landscaping Videos.com which offers free garden design advice, front yard landscaping ideas, and videos. Get even more landscaping and garden design ideas at www.landscapingvideos.com.