Privacy Screens and Garden Screening Adelaide
Privacy from the street and the neighbours' upstairs windows, designed so your garden still feels open to light and sky.
Privacy screens in Adelaide work best when they do two jobs at once: block the sightlines you want gone, and keep the openness you actually moved outside for. A wall of lattice or a fence built taller than the rules solves the first and ruins the second. Yardner designs garden screening that holds privacy at the points that matter (the upstairs window next door, the gap by the driveway, the stretch of footpath that looks straight onto your deck) while leaving the rest of the garden open to the sky.
We work the way a garden actually reads. Decorative screens give you an immediate line of cover where you need it now. Dense, well-chosen planting grows in behind and around them, so within a couple of seasons the structure softens into greenery rather than standing there as a hard barrier. The result is a garden that feels enclosed and calm, not boxed in.
Every screen is designed and built in-house, from the first sightline check to the plants going in the ground and the maintenance that keeps them dense. You deal with one team across garden design, screening, planting, edging and ongoing care, not a chain of subcontractors each blaming the last.
Privacy where you need it, openness everywhere else
The instinct when you feel overlooked is to block everything. The problem is that a continuous 2 metre barrier around a garden makes it feel smaller, darker and more like a courtyard than a backyard. It also rarely sits within the rules for fence height, so it can become a dispute with the neighbour you were trying to get away from.
We start from your sightlines instead. Where exactly are you exposed: the deck, the pool, the kitchen window, the spot you'd put the outdoor table? We screen those specific lines and leave the rest open, so the garden keeps its light and sense of space while the parts that felt watched finally don't.
Decorative screens, then dense planting that grows in
A decorative screen gives you cover the day it goes up, and it does the structural work: defining a boundary, carrying a climber, framing a view you do want to keep. Chosen well, it reads as part of the design rather than a fence you settled for.
Planting is what makes screening feel like a garden. Layered hedging, upright evergreens and the right climbers fill in behind and through the structure so that within a season or 2 the hard lines disappear into green. We pick species for the specific aspect and soil so the screen stays dense year-round instead of thinning out and reopening the gap you closed.
Screening designed for your aspect, not a catalogue
The most common reason a privacy planting fails is that it was the wrong plant for the spot. A west-facing fence in an Adelaide summer cooks anything that wanted shade; a narrow side return that gets 2 hours of light will not hold a sun-loving hedge. Screening that looked full on day one goes patchy by the second summer, and the privacy goes with it.
Because we source plants in-house across 268+ Adelaide garden makeovers and 1,698+ trees and plants put in the ground, we choose for the conditions you actually have. The screen is specified to your orientation, your soil and how much room the bed realistically gives the roots, so it fills in and stays full.
One team from sightline to upkeep
Screening touches several trades at once: the structure, the bed preparation, the edging that contains it, the planting, and the maintenance that keeps a hedge tight rather than leggy. Split that across separate contractors and the detail falls through the cracks.
Yardner delivers all of it in-house: garden design, screening, raised garden beds, edging, planting and ongoing maintenance. One team owns the result, so the screen is built and planted as one considered piece and kept that way after we leave.
Where we work and what projects cost
We work across Adelaide metro, with most of our screening projects in the eastern suburbs, the inner city and along the coast. Beyond the metro we take projects on case by case, so it is worth asking.
A Yardner garden begins with what is already there. We refine and restore an existing garden rather than only working from a blank build site, which usually means screening can be designed around established trees and levels instead of starting over. Projects range from $10,000 to $150,000+ depending on the scale of the screening and the planting around it, and we will be clear about where yours sits before any work begins.
What a Yardner screening & privacy project includes
Common questions
What is the difference between privacy screens and garden screening?
They overlap. A privacy screen is usually the built element: a decorative panel or batten screen that blocks a specific sightline. Garden screening is the broader approach that combines those screens with planting (hedging, evergreens, climbers) so the privacy reads as part of a living garden rather than a bare fence. Yardner designs both together, using the structure for immediate cover and the planting to soften and complete it over the following season or 2.
Will screening make my garden feel closed in?
Not if it is designed around sightlines rather than the whole boundary. The mistake that closes a garden in is wrapping it in a continuous tall barrier. We screen only the points where you are actually overlooked (the deck, a window, a gap by the driveway) and leave the rest open to light and sky. Done that way, the garden feels private and calm while keeping its sense of space.
How tall can a privacy screen be in Adelaide?
Allowable fence and screen heights depend on your boundary, zoning and council, and dividing-fence matters can also involve your neighbour, so we are not the authority on the regulation itself. What we can do is design screening that achieves the privacy you want within sensible height limits, often by combining a lower screen with taller planting rather than relying on one very tall structure. Where a project needs council confirmation, we will flag it early.
How long until planting fills in and the screen is fully private?
The decorative screen gives you cover straight away. The planting around it typically reads as a soft green screen within a season or 2, depending on the species, the aspect and the maintenance. We choose faster-establishing plants where you need privacy sooner, and we specify for your specific conditions so the screen fills in evenly and stays dense rather than thinning out later.
What does garden screening cost in Adelaide?
It depends on the length of boundary, the type of screen and how much planting sits around it. Yardner projects generally range from $10,000 to $150,000+, and a focused screening project usually sits at the lower end of that unless it is part of a larger garden makeover. We will give you a clear sense of where your project lands when we visit and look at the sightlines and conditions in person.
Related services
Start the conversation today
If your home is ready for a garden that matches it, we'd be glad to hear from you. Tell us about your space and budget, and we'll be in touch to arrange a time.
- 0405 306 789
- Adelaide, South Australia — metro and beyond, project by project
- Projects from $10,000 to $150,000+