Plant Suggestion for Privacy Screen

Question from Trece:

I have 2 pots I would like to plant to make a window screen for privacy. The pots are about 35″ long x 11″ wide x 10″ deep. Can you suggest something that would make a privacy screen, grow quickly and thick in this pot and last a few years? Appreciate any help or suggestion you can give me.

Answer from Pat:

The window boxes you’ve described won’t hold enough soil to support a hedge of permanent plants tall enough to screen a window. However, you could probably plant scarlet runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus) in them if you provide a trellis of some sort strong enough for them to twine up it. Scarlet runner beans grow fast and are often used for screening front porches and the like. They are perennial, but we grow them as an annual. Flowers come in red or pink and bring humming birds. The beans that follow the flowers can be picked and eaten when young and tender or you can allow them to mature and eat them as dried beans, but then they would stop blooming. By picking the beans you keep the flowers coming. In September you could replace the scarlet runners with ‘Winter Elegance’ sweet peas. With either beans or peas, you would need to water the plants often. Ten inches is not optimum for roots of sweet peas but they would probably survive. (You didn’t say where you live, but of course if you live in a cold climate you couldn’t grow sweet peas in winter as we do here. Also, both plants would need full sun.

Instead of plants have you thought of hanging “door beads”—beaded curtains or “beaded doors”—across the window? These would hang from above, let in all the air you want but not allow anyone to see through from outdoors. For example, you might hang two bamboo or plain beaded screens across the window from above and then allow your Scarlet Runner Beans to twine up their strings in summer. This would provide immediate privacy and a unique look.

If you would be satisfied with a lower screen, I have two suggestions. One is to stick individual cuttings of a tall cane begonia, such as ‘Irene Nuss’ in a row in the center of the pots. My other suggestion is to plant a row of the tallest mother-in-law plants (Sansevieria) you can find. Some varieties grow quite tall and they are tough plants that can survive a long time with crowded roots. they would not need as frequent watering as beans or peas. You could combine them with a row of hanging baskets filled with a plant that cascades down many feet, such as variegated periwinkle (Vinca major ‘Variegata’.) Variegated periwinkle hanging baskets are useful for ornamenting bare condo walls and no reason why they couldn’t be used to screen windows as well.