Extend your fence height – legally!
UK law states that without special consent all garden fences should not exceed 2m. Now that’s all very well but what if you just need an extra 50, 60 or 70cms on top to block that awful neighbour at number 7? Well, there’s a simple solution at hand – evergreen wall (or fence) shrubs. The likes of pyracantha, ceanothus ‘Concha’ and Pittosporum tenuifolium can all be grown directly against a fence. Here they can be trimmed and tied into support wires to keep them as narrow as 40cm but will easily (and legally) extend beyond the top of your 2m fence to give you a solid year-round evergreen screen, which can effectively extend your boundary height to 2.5m or even 3m. All of them can be trimmed once a year to maintain a hedge-like form or, if you’ve got the space, let them run wild and go free-form. However you do it, it’s a satisfying way to increase your privacy without falling foul of the law.