It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted a garden project! We didn’t do Project Weekend this year, and I’ve mostly been barely keeping up with yard maintenance so far. It was quite a lot of work these past couple weeks getting my yard ready for my first movie night of the summer! After I cleaned up from the fun party, I had a $10 off $100 purchase coupon expiring at Home Depot, so I finally decided to add lattice panels to the top of my 5-foot fence so I no longer see my neighbors’ patio that is less than 10 feet from my patio, let alone their clothesline, their new portable shed, tall propane heaters, and their very bright fluorescent patio light.
Here are two pictures of what my patio looked like in 2010, after the major patio refresh project, but before the waterfall project. You can see directly into my neighbors’ patio and even into their house windows if you’re tall enough. I kept trying to convince my vines to grow taller, but there’s only so far they grow vertically without support or they flop anyway. I solved the view for fall and winter with canvas curtains, but for spring and summer I much prefer leaving the patio open to see my plants and take advantage of the breezes.
I had this lattice panel idea mulling around in my head for years, but I wasn’t sure if the old fence was sturdy enough, or if panels tall enough to block the view would technically be out of code. My neighbors had just rearranged their stuff and added a new portable shed so that it was much more ugly from my side, so I decided something needed to happen! 
Since after my coupon & tax it was only $150 of supplies for premade 2-foot by 8-foot lattice panels, I decided if I screwed them to the fence, they could easily be removed and saved if the fence needed replacing. I started the panels at my shed fence and stopped the panels at my trash gate, so you can’t see the panels at all from my property line either front or back, and I doubt my neighbors will complain about the extra privacy. 
Thankfully when my trusty old Honda Civic finally died, I bought a small SUV, so all 5 lattice panels just barely fit inside with the back door closed…whew! I already had a box of 3″ exterior screws at home, so I got started right away, even though it would have been much easier with a second pair of hands. The trickiest part was that the fence crossbeams aren’t level and the line varies quite a bit due to age and the big tree roots, so I couldn’t rest the panels on top of the crossbeams. I anchored the panels through the bottom border straight sideways into the side of the crossbeams, splitting the vertical difference along the whole length so at least the lattice would look more level. I drove in one screw best I could while leveraging the other end of the panel with my other hand, then rotated the other end until it was in line with my eyeballed “level” and anchored that end before adding more screws along the length of the panel. Once I got the first one fairly straight down by the shed, I could line up the other panels by resting the vertical end against the previous panel. In a couple spots there was nothing to screw to, so I angled the screw up to hit the beam behind the 
lattice border. The 3″ screws I had worked fine, but a couple that wouldn’t go in completely worked as hooks for my vines anyway so that didn’t bother me. Glad my vines had grown as a big mat that I just unhooked from the fence and hung again after I was done. I probably should have taken a photo of that, since I kept carefully climbing over the big mat of vines that covered the whole pathway!
Since my trash gate is where the fence panels start alternating so I don’t have the beam on my side all the time, I cut the last section just past the gate with my reciprocating saw. I think it looks fine, and you don’t see that from the patios anyway. I anchored the panels to each other with some 1 1/4″ screws as close to the top as possible, so now they stay in line vertically. I also added a few more 3″ screws angled as hooks about halfway up at each panel seam so my vines have more incentive to grow higher. If someone tries to hang anything heavy or pull sideways, they 
might tear out of the fence beam, but they look good for now, even as fresh raw wood until it ages. With the vines hanging in place again, they break up the color between the fence and the lattice anyway so I don’t mind the color difference as much as I thought I would. Only a little over an hour of solo work, only stopping to wipe the sweat dripping into my eyes, and it was finished, but my shoulders were sore the next day!
Here is the waterfall in 2012 after the planters were added, where you can see the loquat tree branches helped block the view some, but you could still see my neighbors’ yard, and that’s where they stuck their new shed recently, so it marred my waterfall view. Now the new lattice gives a more elegant background instead! It was even nicer this morning since even the view in my bathroom mirror is the lattice and vines instead of my neighbors patio!
Now I will enjoy my summer even more! Hope you are enjoying your summer, too!
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