Top 10 Ways to Provide Privacy on a Balcony Garden

Is your balcony overlooked by apartment blocks and offices, or next door’s balcony?

While balconies can give us vital access to some outdoor space, they can often be exposed, offering up zero privacy. It might make you less inclined to head outdoors with nosy neighbors peering into your space.

If you find yourself avoiding heading outside to sunbathe or sip your morning coffee in your PJs, there are thankfully plenty of ways that you can shield your balcony from unwanted attention. Allowing you to escape into your own secluded outdoor space.

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How to provide privacy on a balcony 

With a range of ideas for varied budgets and garden styles, here are the top 10 ways to increase privacy on your balcony.

1. Use Tall and Narrow Plants 

If you want to create a natural screen, but don’t have much available space, choosing tall and narrow plants can help to create some privacy.

Tall plants can help you block the view from overlooking apartments or buildings and create your own private sanctuary. For year-round coverage, choose narrow evergreen plants like a Juniper ‘Blue Arrow’ (with unique blue foliage) or bamboo.

Narrow hedging

Some of the best shrubs to create tall narrow hedging include Japanese Holly and False Cypress. Shrubs for shorter hedges including plants like euonymus and boxwood.

Choosing tall containers or a plant stand are both great ways to boost the height of plants and shrubs — especially young, slow-growing plants that haven’t reached their ultimate height. These tall outdoor containers from Amazon can give some extra height to shrubs to provide a bit more privacy.

Related Read | Choosing the Best Containers for a Balcony Garden

2. Balcony Privacy Screens 

If your balcony has see-through glass or railings, and you’re worried about stares from the street, covers and protective screens, like these balcony privacy screens from Amazon, can be a great way to quickly hide your space.

For a softer look, this natural reed fencing roll from Amazon provides privacy but is also a more environmentally friendly option.

It’s one of the cheapest ways to screen off your balcony without taking up any extra space.

You can also find tall balcony screens that will help to create a barrier between next-door balconies and overlooking apartments across the street.

3. Train plants to fan out 

Buying multiple plants to create a screen can quickly add up. So an alternative could be to buy fewer plants but train them as they grow to fan out and provide privacy.

It may not be the quickest solution, but it can be cost-effective, and rewarding too!

Evergreen shrubs with dense foliage would be ideal for this. For example, you could train ceanothus to grow vertically.

4. Pleached Trees 

If you’re looking for instant natural coverage up high and you have a bigger budget to spare, pleached trees are an ideal solution.

Pleached trees have been specially trained to grow upright, with a bare central trunk and a wide top of branches with dense foliage. This creates a natural screen at a higher level, for example above your balcony railing, while taking up less space below.

Their uniform shape creates a more contemporary and clean-cut garden style.

5. Trellis with Climbing Plants

A trellis paired with climbing plants can create a natural screen to shield the view onto your balcony.

This standalone trellis planter from Amazon is a great option. The slats of the trellis provide some screening on their own, but it’s also a surface for climbing plants to cling to and provide leafy coverage.

You could also hang small planters with handles, like these hanging plant pots, from this too, and plant them up with trailing tomato varieties, kitchen herbs, hanging basket plants, or strawberries!

Climbing plants

From wisteria to honeysuckle, there are plenty of gorgeous climbing plants for balconies to choose from. I’m a big fan of clematis because of their impressive flowers, but also because there’s such a big group of cultivars with different flower shapes and colors.

For year-round color and foliage, look for evergreen climbing plants, like star jasmine or an evergreen clematis.

You could also grow vertically growing vegetables too, like pole beans or mini melon varieties.

6. Standing Fold-away Screens

If fixing a permanent screen isn’t possible or you’d simply like more flexibility, a standalone foldable privacy screen may be more suitable.

It can easily be folded away or moved around to provide privacy or shade, as and when you need it.

From an expanding wooden trellis to a flexible slatted fence that you can roll away. There are lots of great screening options in different colors, textures, and styles.

7. Balcony Awning 

An awning fixed above your balcony can be a great way to create shade and privacy from overlooking neighbors.

There are plenty of options when it comes to awning colors, styles, and operation, and there are some good affordable options too. 

Just remember that you’ll need to check the building regulations or obtain permission if you’re renting before you start attaching awning brackets!

8. Sunshades, Umbrellas, or Parasols

If you’re not able to install an awning, a standalone umbrella can be a great way to create privacy. They come in a range of sizes, styles and fittings. So you should be able to find an umbrella, no matter the size of your balcony space.

You can even find umbrellas with adjustable angling, so you can angle them around as you need. Just make sure to fold it away if there’s an upcoming storm!

9. Hanging Planters

A hanging planter filled with trailing flowers and foliage can create a tangled cascade of plants that can help to shield your balcony from view. 

Just make sure to double-check building regulations before installing any brackets or hooks.

10. Vertical vegetable garden planter 

Stepped planters and vertical growing systems can provide you with privacy and produce! Filled with kitchen herbs, healing plants, trailing plants, and easy-to-grow vegetables, a vertical planter can help to screen out the bustling world beyond your balcony.

Because of their weight, and the potential for them to topple over, stepped, tiered and ladder planters are usually not much taller than a balcony railing. but paired with a secure, standalone umbrella or hanging planters, it can be a useful way to block views from the street down below.