Screening your compost bin
If space is limited and you don't have an out of the way corner in which to put your bin, there are some ways that you can screen it from view:
Screening with live plants
The best plants to use for hiding your bin from view are dense evergreen plants since you will get a good effect all year round. Most hedging plants are good for this and other plants to try are: Photinia x fraseri Red Robin, Camelia, Aucuba japonica, Osmanthus x burkwoodii, Viburnum tinus and Prunus lusitanica
Live bamboo does a great job as a living screen and you can usually buy fairly mature plants. The black bamboo, Phyllostachys nigra has beautiful black stems but you can buy bamboos with various stem colours. A word of caution, most of the bamboos are invasive so it is recommended that you plant them in plastic pots with the bottom of the pot cut out so that the roots don't travel.
Screening with a trellis
You can put trellis in front of your bin and grow climbers over it for a really natural screen. There are loads of climbers to choose from depending on your preference but most of the really good flowering ones are not evergreen. A good way around this is to plant an evergreen climber such as ivy or evergreen honeysuckle alongside your flowering one.
Bamboo or willow screening
You can make a bamboo or willow screen to put in front of your compost bin and this is also a useful way of screening all your other bins too. It is possible to buy them ready-made.
