Landscaping Between Houses

The landscaping between our house and our neighbor's house is a bit thin. We can see the neighbor's car and drive when we are sitting on our patio. Our neighbors are a foreign couple who have lived in Seremban for a couple years renting this house, but have to leave because the house has sold. While our neighbors are great and quiet as it is only the two of them, we thought we better get working on a landscape solution for this area before the new owners move into the house in May.

At first I was thinking about a lattice wall where we can train vines to go up, but B told us that wood exposed here would be problematic as the sun would wear it away or the termites might come and eat it away.

So now I am thinking about plants that can grow high in this area. I don't want to put in any trees because the pipes run under the pebbles and more roots in the area might be problematic.

Image from Pick Me Yard A Family Garden Blog showing 13 foot high Greater Galangal

So when I was recently researching Galangal I read that you can plant those rhizomes you buy from the grocery store into the soil and they should grow. If Galangal can grow to at least 13 feet then it seems like it would be a great 'green wall' between the two properties.

An image of a flowering Galangal on Gardening With Wilson: Singapore Blog

I also read that you can do the same thing with Ginger roots. And I think they grow these great red flowers (I should check with the nursery, the red flower kind might be different). I love the show-y-ness of this plant and at first I read that it doesn't grow so high, but these photos show that a grown Ginger plant would be high enough to give us some privacy between the houses.

Strangely, I think that both the Galangal and Ginger Plants long stems and leaves look something like our always growing and blooming Bunga Katan Plant on the other side of our property.