The Christmas amaryllis is gracing the table with another cluster of flowers.

I’m enjoying the orangey red, trumpet-shaped blossoms, which brighten up the dining table. But looking past the amaryllis, through the window overlooking the rear garden, all I’m seeing right now is the kids’ trampoline, its blue-and-green poles drawing my eye like a magnet.
That’s not my garden view in the summer or fall. During those lush seasons, Tecoma stans , salvias, and muhly grasses screen the play area from view. Now, however, in mid-winter, the back garden is too open, everything is visible, and that’s not good.
With this troubling thought in mind (and isn’t it delightful to have such troubling garden problems to resolve?), I’ve been considering my options for permanently screening the play area (primarily the trampoline) from view, and redirecting attention to the winter garden’s quiet color and structure.
A loose border of evergreen shrubs or trees? No, too big for the narrow space I have to work with.
A line of tall, skinny ‘Will Fleming’ yaupon hollies? No, too formal for my casual back yard.
Evergreen vines on a trellis? Maybe something like Zilker Botanical Garden’s cedar-and-wire screening fence, which I’ve often admired.

The construction is simpler than it appears. Each cedar post is a “false front,” hiding from view the steel stakes that support the hog-wire screen. The posts are wired to the front of the stakes to create the illusion that the cedar supports the trellis.

Back view—how it’s put together
I like the shaggy cedar (very Texasy), I like that the fence can be made to undulate (rather than just follow a straight line), and I like the ease of contruction. I think something like this will work well to screen the trampoline from view during late winter, when my perennial border is no longer doing the job. I think I’ll give it a try. Now if I can just find a source for cedar posts.