Too often we see balcony and deck areas go unused because of a sheer lack of privacy. Now you can showcase and bring texture to your yard with natural beauty and privacy at the same time. A unique way to add beautiful greenery to your balcony, coverage from the prying eyes of neighbors, or, what might be an unattractive view, is to create a natural outdoor privacy screen.
Start with lightweight decorative resin or plastic containers. We used 3 for our project because of the size of the balcony deck. One for the front, and one for each side of the balcony. Be sure to select containers that that have drainage holes at the bottom. Plants that are sitting in soggy water-filled soil are never a good thing.
Put a few small rocks around the top of the drainage holes to keep the soil from draining out. Then, fill the containers with soil, and plant vines (we used creeping fig because it is hardy and will naturally cling to the surface once it gets established) with branches that are long enough to secure to your balcony fence panels. Position your 3 decorative resin containers along the front side of the balcony at the center, left and right sides. This will give you an outdoor privacy screen that covers all the angles.
Next, cut rolled plastic fencing in to 1-2 inch strips and staple to fence using your stable gun. Secure vines to plastic fencing with plastic coated wire ties. Be careful not to staple the vines themselves. Ouch!! As vines branch out, continue to add more plastic fencing until wood fence panels are completely covered. This will give your balcony a custom charm and a natural outdoor privacy screen (for photos see below). You can also use this same method to cover ugly metal fence poles in your yard as well (see our article on Covering Up Ugly Metal Fence Poles)
Supplies:
- 3 Lightweight resin plant containers with drainage holes, or drill your own.
- Plastic Gardener Fencing (3 x 50 ft. − Can be found at most home and garden centers.)
- Plastics coated wire ties for outdoor plants.
- Staple Gun
- Staples (for your staple gun of course)
- Scissors or wire cutters
- 3 creeping figs
- Potting soil and mulch
- Drainage saucers