Privacy screen for garden, balcony & terrace

If your garden is ever a bit windy, you can make a screen a little more stable by placing a heavy potted plant in each crease. Nevertheless, the screen has to be cleared into the house (almost) every evening because of the weather and the risk of theft.

More durable privacy solutions

Various grasses are quite gifted when it comes to privacy protection:

• Ideally, plant grass exactly where it is needed as a privacy screen
• otherwise plant in containers
  • Use potted plants as privacy screens wherever you want
• Type of grass depends on how you can overwinter the potted plants
• if tubs and grass are frost-resistant and hardy, stay outside
  • if that is not possible, look for grasses that you cut back in winter and overwinter in the basement together with the bucket

Hedges or free-standing shrubs can of course also be used for privacy purposes, around the property or in individual places:

• The longer the privacy hedge, the more carefully you should choose the plants

If a large area is to be made opaque with shrubs, the problem is similar:

• don’t just let grow what wants to grow
• Hedges and shrubs of a considerable size only offer privacy protection
• Size should first measure accurately
  • Then decide: Small plants for little money and privacy screens in the more or less near future
  • Or privacy protection immediately, but more expensive
• It also depends on the plant variety, there are huge price differences

Privacy fences and privacy walls

The difference between a privacy fence and a privacy wall is that the privacy fence, like any fence with posts, is in the ground, so it takes a lot of work to set up. A screen wall, on the other hand, basically stands on its own. So you only have to screw the supplied kit together.

privacy wall

Privacy screens are available in many different designs, in every DIY store and in every garden center, but there usually only in a really very limited selection. If you are looking for exactly the privacy screen that goes with another design already represented in the garden, you should better look for a supplier who specializes in such privacy protection solutions.

Probably the cheapest solution is braided from reeds. Here you can get a few meters of screen wall at person height for about 30 euros. You could opt for bamboo screens or a tree bark mat, a reed mat or a swamp heather mat. You will find willow privacy screens and chestnut privacy screens, reed privacy screens and coconut privacy screens. All of these natural materials are extremely weather-resistant, without the use of any protective chemicals.

This natural privacy screen offers you another great advantage: You can choose which degree of transparency your light protection still allows.

• Possibility 1: clearly recognize the outlines of an approaching person
• Possibility 2: complete isolation

That can make a crucial difference. Between the feeling of sitting behind the privacy screen as in a (too) small, isolated room, or the feeling of being in the designed but free nature – as an observer who cannot be observed himself.

Your privacy screen can be made of precious wood to match the garden furniture. Such privacy screens are available in a variety of precious woods. Depending on the type of wood, the prices range from around €70 per meter to much more.

Privacy protection made of stainless steel is offered as a frame construction or as a solid solution. The most inexpensive privacy screens, which are durable thanks to the use of stainless steel, consist of individual privacy screen elements made of plastic that look like wood. The functional parts with which the posts are connected to the elements are made of stainless steel and are therefore pleasantly durable. Such elements including stainless steel accessories are offered from €99. They are about the size of a door and can be cleaned very easily with a high-pressure cleaner.

The Flexi indoor and outdoor screen is actually no longer a screen, but a full privacy screen with an aluminum frame, fabric and stainless steel screws. Flexi is so called because it makes the privacy screen flexible like any screen, but with its polyester fabric cover and stainless steel connections it is absolutely weatherproof. So he can stay in the garden throughout the season. This versatile privacy screen is available in a version with three elements, 1.70 x 2.10 meters, from around €200. You can get it via various internet trading platforms or directly from the manufacturer Peddy Shield Sun Protection Systems GmbH from 51377 Leverkusen.

privacy fence

You will also come across all of the ideas just mentioned if you are looking for a privacy fence. The terms are often used interchangeably. However, the actual privacy fence is, as I said, a real fence with solid ground anchoring. It is particularly recommended where it is not just about protection from looks, but also protection from unpleasant gusts of wind.

You could put up a privacy fence on your property that looks just like your garden fence. This has the advantage that the design of the “fence in the property” fits exactly with the fence around the property. When the “inner fence” is up, it is transformed into a privacy fence with accessories that you can get from your fence supplier. You should of course find out beforehand which accessories your fence supplier or manufacturer offers. Think carefully beforehand whether you will like a privacy fence clad in this way. And whether it really fits when the perimeter fence runs through the property. If it doesn’t fit, it’s not reassuring, it’s like an allotment gardener has freaked out on your property!

Of course, if you don’t like the accessories your fence supplier offers to create a privacy screen, you are free to make your fence opaque yourself using other materials. You can weave in foils or strips of fabric, attach willow mats or wooden slats, right up to extremely artistic solutions.

Build privacy walls yourself

You couldn’t find what you were looking for in the range of ready-to-buy privacy protection solutions because you have something very specific in mind? The only way to do that is to build it yourself:

You can prepare a very simple privacy screen for the terrace by placing a tall, vertical stick in each of the large planters on the terrace before filling in the soil. With some tubs, this rod can be screwed down with angles. With other buckets, you can secure it with cross-connections at the top of the bucket rim. However, the earth alone makes him stand quite safely. If you wish to remain unobserved, simply attach a piece of fleece, cut to fit, to the top and bottom of these rods with heavy duty staples. The temporary privacy screen is ready.

As a fleece you could z. B. take a piece of garden fleece or weed fleece, that’s very easy. You can borrow strong clips from your lingerie department, and you can find even stronger ones in office supply stores. Of course, the sticks can also be used to let a plant climb up them. Then you may need to add a crossbar at various intervals. The nice thing about this solution is that you can make yourself “invisible”, but you don’t have to look out for the long-awaited visitor on the terrace.

Skilled craftsmen build privacy mats of all kinds or metal plates or other plate material on fence arrows or wooden posts. Patients plant individual willows and then weave them into a privacy screen. Strong master builders stack concrete blocks for privacy screens and creative people make artistic privacy screens.

Unusual privacy protection solutions

Even privacy screens in the garden can add more fun and art to life.

You can e.g. B. Weave a fence picture into an existing fence. Any fence with small individual fields is suitable for this, e.g. B. a chain link fence. You need long strips of fabric in different colors. So scraps of fabric or old T-shirts cut into long narrow strips, lots of imagination and a sketch. By inserting the fabric from left to right, from top to bottom, a braided pattern is created in the fence. In the beginning maybe a symmetrical flower, later “fence artists” create entire figures or landscapes.

Or you can build a privacy screen out of lightweight building blocks that can be worked on like a sculptor’s block, only a lot easier. This is how a real visual protection sculpture can be created. An animal maybe, or several next to each other, which still leave space for a flower pot in between.

Conclusion
Privacy protection in the garden is very often necessary, at least for people who like to be left alone and do not want to be constantly under surveillance. Arriving at a privacy screen in the garden is not really a problem. But even if the selection or the production takes a little time: You can design exactly the privacy screen for your garden that you really feel comfortable with!