Garden Screening Ideas: Planting vs Built Screens
Garden screening comes in two forms: planting (pleached trees, hedging, climbers) and built screens (slatted timber or composite panels, fencing, trellis). Planting gives a softer, greener, evolving screen that grows denser over time; built screens give instant, year-round privacy in a fixed footprint. The best gardens often combine the two, and the right choice depends on speed, space and style.
Whether it’s an overlooking window, a boundary or an unlovely view, most gardens need screening somewhere, and there are two fundamentally different ways to do it. Planting screens with living green; built screens use structure. Neither is simply ‘better’, they suit different needs, and knowing which is which is the key to a screen that works.
Planting vs Built, Side by Side
| Planting (pleached, hedging) | Built (slatted, fencing) | |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy speed | Good immediately (pleached), denser over time | Instant, from day one |
| Look | Soft, green, natural, evolving | Architectural, contemporary, fixed |
| Footprint | Needs some ground for roots | Slim, good for tight boundaries |
| Height | Raises the screen above a wall/fence | Limited by structure/regulations |
| Maintenance | Trimming, feeding, watering | Occasional treatment/cleaning |
| Year-round | Evergreen options stay dense | Always solid |
Planting Screens
Planting is often the most beautiful solution, a living, green screen that softens boundaries and changes with the seasons. Pleached trees (trained on a clear stem) raise a screen of foliage above fence height, ideal for blocking first-floor overlooking without taking much ground. Evergreen hedging gives dense, year-round privacy at lower levels, and climbers dress a wall or trellis. LandArt’s planting screens are among our most requested work.
Pleached & privacy trees: Screening & Privacy, LandArt’s specialist planting screens. Hedging for privacy: Trees & Hedges for Privacy.
Built Screens
When you need privacy now, in a tight space, or as a strong architectural line, a built screen delivers. Contemporary slatted timber or composite panels, decorative screens, trellis and quality fencing give instant, year-round privacy in a slim footprint, and can double as a support for climbers to blend the two approaches. Built screens also define spaces within a garden, not just its boundaries.
Built garden privacy screens: Garden Privacy Screen, contemporary slatted and panel screening designed and installed by LandArt.
How to Choose, and Why Not Both?
Choose built screening when you need privacy immediately, have a narrow boundary, or want a contemporary architectural look. Choose planting when you have a little space and time, want a softer green screen, or need to raise the screen above a wall (pleached trees). In practice, the best results often combine them, a built screen for instant privacy with planting in front to soften it and take over as it grows. On a site visit we’ll recommend the right approach for your garden.
Garden Screening FAQs
What is the best garden screening?
There’s no single best, it depends on your priorities. Built screens (slatted panels, fencing) give instant, year-round privacy in a slim footprint; planting screens (pleached trees, hedging) give a softer, greener, evolving screen. Many gardens combine both. We advise on the right mix for your space.
What are pleached trees?
Pleached trees are trained to form a flat screen of foliage on a clear stem, effectively a hedge on stilts. They’re ideal for raising privacy above a wall or fence to block first-floor overlooking, without taking much ground. See our screening & privacy page.
Planting or a fence for privacy, which is faster?
A built screen or fence is fastest, giving privacy from day one. Planting can also give good immediate cover (pleached trees especially) and grows denser over time. If you need privacy now, build; if you have a little time, plant, or do both.
Screen Your Garden with LandArt
Request a design consultation at landart.ie, LandArt’s design-build team takes your garden from design to completion, one team, across Dublin and south Dublin.
