I am looking for some plant, preferably fruiting, to create a privacy screen. My neighbor’s house is located pretty close to my garden, but much lower, so I can’t help to see their second floor windows when I work in the garden. When I talked to them about removing some trees on our border they showed concern about privacy. Though I am not sure what kind of privacy bare trunks of the young tall spindly maples make, I still want them to be happy. After I removed some trees on my side, I want to create a screen, so they feel better about privacy, but that screen shouldn’t grow branches toward sunny area as maples do. This is the north border of my property, and there are about 20’ between full sun area and trunks of big pines and maples on their side and about 5 feet to their border. It is obviously somewhat shady area. In my opinion the vertical trellis would be the best there shape-wise. The grapes would grow in shade, but most likely will not produce any fruit. Hardy kiwi is listed as shade-tolerant and seems to be a good choice.What I don’t know about kiwi is how labor demanding they are? I do not what to create a new high demand area for myself and I do not want to do a heavy pruning in early spring, because it will remove most of the privacy screen right when I spend most time in the garden. So If kiwi is not properly pruned(looks like 70% of the wood should be removed each year) will they: still fruit? choke near by trees as bittersweet does? spread uncontrollably by roots?
The other questions I have about kiwi: do they have thorns on the vines? Do they create nice color in fall? Are they difficult to start? I have a choice to buy them as bundle 6-10’’ (2 females, one male) in 2’’ pots or single 1-2 years old plants (that would be twice more expensive for three trees), do I need to go with more expensive option?
Anything else I need to know before I decide to use hard kiwi in my privacy screen?
I tried the same, they didn’t like my late, hard frosts. Beware cats love the stems like catnip, they will shred them. I had to put spiral plastic sleeves on mine.
I would prefer something evergreen.
In a shade? If it would be sun, I wouldn’t waste it for privacy screen 
Mine did poorly,so I up earthed them.
Your 5b so it may be different, but here hardy kiwi are monsters. They grow super fast and very big. Not evergreen, but eventually there will be so many sticks it still has some privacy. Would work great.
Now the down side. With that incredible growth means they will be reaching out six foot onto your neighbors looking for something to grab. You would have to go on your neighbors side at least twice a year to keep it in check. No thorns though.
Hope that helps.
That is not an issue - our border is weird. their house is about 20’ down from ours, under a very strip drop. But the border is about 10-15 feet from this drop on our side. They do not even know exactly where it is - the person who sold the house to me was their relative, so they never knew exact border and never used this portion of their property for anything. I calculated it using my recent septic plan, where they tied the corner of the property to the light pole on the street. So if neighbors want privacy - they will get it, and I will be the one to care for it. So I don’t think they will complain me stepping on their side.
When I went to Edible Landscaping and saw their trellises for hardy kiwis, I asked about them. Their response was that you HAVE to give them an extremely strong trellis to grow on. They will tear out and destroy anything weak (eventually) like what you would consider a normal wooden grape arbor.
If given a strong support, train them to a single “trunk” like a grape vine and your fruiting shoots will grow from that, sometimes the vine will grow up to 3 feet per week and you have to aggressively whack it back both to limit vegetative growth and encourage fruit production. This is all from memory (I think Greg gave us a tour?).
Major disadvantage I’ve seen here other than a strict pruning regimen is that the blooms often get hit by frost and they don’t produce fruit those years.
Regarding the privacy aspect of things- I understand keeping the peace with neighbors. I will say as I’ve seen here; Tall fences make for good neighbors. Also they have absolutely no right to tell you how to manage your property… They should be happy you don’t intend to take down all of the trees and just have a sterile lawn like some developers do.
I would recommend researching Arctic kiwis for a shade situation. Hop vines grow quickly and provide tea or beer brewing materials. They can be cut to the ground yearly too.
Aren’t they the same as Hardy kiwis?
They are a different species and prefer the shade. Arctic kiwi have a pretty red leaf based on the photos I’ve seen. It looks like some places on the internet don’t realize they are different species and group them together.
Actinidia arguta vs Actinidia kolomikta
In winter you would not have any cover.
Consider hops, they can be ridiculously expensive. Or grapes. When not trained for production they can grow with gusto.
The downside of hops is the bines die back to ground level every fall, unlike grapes or kiwis, so it might require additional work each year to train them back into a privacy screen.
I started some hardy kiwi cuttings a year and a half ago, a gift from someone who uses them as a privacy “hedge” in a densely populated suburban neighborhood. He said he just wove the new growth back into a hedge shape and rarely pruned for many years. He had a couple female clones and one male as pollenizer, and just wove them all together.
My cuttings hardly grew last year (a couple feet for the longest one), so I’m hoping it was their root growth year and this spring they’ll take off. I’ve planted them along my southern fence line between my vegetable garden and the neighbor’s windows, so I’m hoping for something similar. The neighbor said they will accept the chore of maintaining any growth on their side, and harvesting from it, if it gets big enough to push over and through the fence.
At the speed they grow it doesn’t make much difference if they grow from the ground or from previous year vines.
Yes, it does. As I said, I need the screen to work in winter and especially in early spring, when I spend every available hour in the garden. The leafless vines will create the screen as well, if they grow not as single trunk, but kind of wild.
Just a word to the wise, “kind of wild” can be an understatement when applied to hardy kiwi in our climate. My dad has one that got away from him and it’s a real jungle.
yeah, hardy kiwi do not look as a good option anymore. Back to square one in search.
Have you seen a kiwi vine over the winter? That is not going to be much of a screen either.
I think grape vines might be the best option for your goals, or another densely vining plant on a lattice trellis. If you use a lattice or otherwise densely patterned trellis - the trellis itself can provide privacy in the years before your chosen plant has grown densely. My hardy kiwis in 6b are not anything I would count on for privacy, they are not very dense 2 years in.
There is also the option to let the neighbor install whatever screening he feels appropriate on his own side of the fence. Often you find out that when the onus is on them all of a sudden the task is not as high on the priority list as before.
Me, I would do something if it jives with my own orchard plants. If privacy is important to him as a good neighbor you should encourage him to do something about it.
One possible option would be flowering quince (chaenomeles). My parents had some in their yard (also in MA), and it was basically zero maintenance, didn’t seem troubled by shade (under big pine trees), formed dense thickets (screening effect), and even in shade bore a substantial amount of fruit, which I hear can be used for cooking although we never did. It also blooms in early spring, so it would be in its glory while you’re out getting your garden going.