Screening / Privacy Advice
United Kingdom 
Hi, I want to be able to screen off a part of my garden as it backs onto a nature trail path and we sometimes have people looking directly into our living room. However, I also want the screen to be able to keep out any potential intruders. I want to screen to be around 6ft high, evergreen and impenatrable. I have been recommended Pyracantha. I have only recently started getting into gardening so could anyone offer any advice on whether this is a good suggestion? Many thanks.
On plant
Pyracantha?
20 Mar, 2012
Answers
Thanks so much Bamboo, especially for the speed of your response! I will take a look at the Berberis Dawinii too as this sounds like it could be a great alternative. Thanks again :-)
20 Mar, 2012
Both these shrubs do better with some sun though - full shade wouldn't be good for either of them. I've just noticed I put 8 feet for the height - it'll be more like 6 to 6 and a half feet...
20 Mar, 2012
How about good old hawthorn the wild life like it too
20 Mar, 2012
Hawthorn is great for a nature reserve boundary but would need regular cutting and the cuttings are horrible to collect and dispose of though. The berberis isn't quite so unfriendly and is also evergreen.
20 Mar, 2012
I have bad memories of berberis, when I did the nch we had to do loads of semiripe cuttings....it took weeks to get the bits out of my fingers.....
21 Mar, 2012
I would favour pyracantha. In a previous garden we had a 120 foot of chainlink fencing with wasteground alongside that children built dens on....lucky them! We planted pyracantha and kept it in order by more or less one cut a year. Collected cuttings onto a canvas layed on the ground . Carried that to our incinerator and minced it a bit more with loppers and then tipped it in from the canvas. No one ever moaned about us burning it, as it was done at dusk. Nowadays it could be shredded and wheelied for corporate compost.
21 Mar, 2012
Thanks again for some really good advice. Dorjac, that was particularly useful. I think I will go for the Pyracantha. Will this be ok to grow in partial shade?
23 Mar, 2012
I think that Pyracantha will do well in partial shade. There is a row of them in front of sheltered housing fencing, just down the road, to deter intruders. They have been kept about 2 and 1/2 feet tall for many years by contract gardeners.They are on the shady side of our road. They have the sun on them till about 11am. They always have a lot of berries on them and are thriving well.
23 Mar, 2012
Very interesting as that sounds like a similar set up to how I will plant them. Some really good advice, thanks again. Looks like I am in for a busy weekend :-)
23 Mar, 2012
Yes, it is, its a thorny beast, but it does get rather large, so you will need to attend to cutting and trimming regularly. The other option is Berberis darwinii, which only gets to about 8 feet - also prickly, but in this case, its the leaves which are prickly and not the stems. It's also evergreen, has small orange flowers in spring.
20 Mar, 2012