What is a Green Screen?
Mention the term green screen, and images of special effects for films comes to mind. But what do they have to do with privacy and outdoor living spaces?
Green screen is a clever term for living privacy screens, a way of blocking a view, gaining privacy or blocking wind or noise by planting and growing hedges, trees or vines.
Plants that work best for doubling as a wall are preferably evergreen and full and lush from roots to top.
Evergreen shrubs that perform well in the landscape include:
A plain wall or fence can become a living green screen with the right plants trained to grow on or next to it. Bamboo -- the clumping varieties -- makes a tropical looking screen and can quickly disguise an unsightly wall. If you have a chain-link fence, try planting flowering vines. Good choices include clematis, morning glory, climbing roses, wisteria and jasmine.
Small patio trees also make good green screens, especially if planted close together. If the desired privacy screen is on a patio or deck, patio trees in containers positioned close and in a row are attractive and effective at blocking or screening. Smart patio tree selections include small maples, dogwoods, redbuds, citrus, ornamental plums or cherries, smoke trees, crape myrtles, magnolias, flowering crabapples, sourwoods, serviceberries, small cypress, michelia, fruitless olives, fern pines, evergreen pears or smaller palm trees.
Green screen is a clever term for living privacy screens, a way of blocking a view, gaining privacy or blocking wind or noise by planting and growing hedges, trees or vines.
Plants that work best for doubling as a wall are preferably evergreen and full and lush from roots to top.
Evergreen shrubs that perform well in the landscape include:
- Boxwood
- Bottlebrush
- Hop bush
- Holly
- Juniper
- Privet
- Photinia
- Pittosorum
- Arborvitae
- Viburnum
A plain wall or fence can become a living green screen with the right plants trained to grow on or next to it. Bamboo -- the clumping varieties -- makes a tropical looking screen and can quickly disguise an unsightly wall. If you have a chain-link fence, try planting flowering vines. Good choices include clematis, morning glory, climbing roses, wisteria and jasmine.
Small patio trees also make good green screens, especially if planted close together. If the desired privacy screen is on a patio or deck, patio trees in containers positioned close and in a row are attractive and effective at blocking or screening. Smart patio tree selections include small maples, dogwoods, redbuds, citrus, ornamental plums or cherries, smoke trees, crape myrtles, magnolias, flowering crabapples, sourwoods, serviceberries, small cypress, michelia, fruitless olives, fern pines, evergreen pears or smaller palm trees.
