Hi Francine, I would look at cheap, fast growing, dense shrubs common to your local area. If you can find a local wholesaler who also sells retail (because of the bad economy, many will nowadays--ask!) you can get great deals. Also try looking at your local Craigslist. Sometimes you can find people who want to get rid of some shrubs, if you are willing to dig them up you can get them for FREE. If you post a request to Craigslist you may be able to find some. Another angle to try is local garden clubs. Dedicated gardeners are often pulling stuff out and replacing it--you could ask around there for discards. Recommendations would depend on what climate you are in, which you don't say. Roses are not evergreen, so you would have a period of time when they provide no screening. In a colder climate they need more care than you may be willing to provide, unless Rugosa roses are appropriate for your climate. But they would probably be more expensive than common green shrubs. Also I'm assuming you have permission from your landlord to plant stuff. Good luck with your project!

Grows quickly to 6-8 feet, dense enough for privacy, and only 1 foot wide? I can't think of many plants that will do that for you. Hopbush will quickly grow to 6-10 feet high, but keeping it trimmed to 1 foot wide will be a constant battle. I'm having problems keeping it at 4 feet wide. How about some pictures of what you want to block? You might be able to use a slender tree.

Pierce, just be aware that you will need a male holly for every 5-7 female plants to get berries. Because you will be planting tightly, you might be able to stretch it to one per 10 females. Most of the male forms I know of are shorter growing than the females, in general. You could get around this by using 1-gallon males and planting in the same hole as the females/'Nellie R.Stevens' as you space them out - they can grow up and be available, but are 'hidden' among the mass of the females. I know 15 gal. 'Nellie R. Stevens' are available, but can't speak as to price. While the 'Nellie R. Stevens' are a good hedge plant, if you wanted to mix in another type of tree, the Thuja 'Emerald Green' (a.k.a. 'Emerald Beauty' or 'Smaragd') is another good hedging plant, growing fairly fast to 12-15', and about 3-5' wide. You can fairly easily find 5 gallon plants, at about 4-6' tall - and pay more for them than 1 gal. - so they might be good where you want immediate height. While running bamboos will provide a solid screen once they are established, they will also RUN!! I have pulled out runners that are up to 8' long, and about 6" deep, in the spring. As long as you mow faithfully, you can keep them in check. However, even asphalt won't stop them from coming up - cement MIGHT! You can buy barriers, but you need to make a 3' deep trench for the barrier to be effective, and even then, you will probably have to watch for escapees over the top. Clumping bamboos are much better behaved, and will expand, but stay where you plant them.

I thought Viburnum Odoratissimum would be a good idea as a fence line hedge. Planted a line of them to cover 120' front property line. They have been awful. Disease prone, all sorts of insect pest, and likely a lot of the problems has been caused by the long term drought. These things are not as drought tolerant as reported, not here. Not on this sand soil I have in southern Pinellas. In fact after looking around at where these things are used, due to how common they are and price they are a favorite at shopping centers and gov. buildings I an not unique with these pitiful things. All over they are sparse in growth with a ton of dead branches. Again I suspect this is because they are not getting enough water. I will never use this junk again. They have struggled for 8 yrs and only one of the 12 has done goodd. Aphids, thrips, scale, you name it they get it when they do grow like now. What I have found working very well though it must be trimmed is the small tree/shrub, the native wax myrtle. Incredible how it thrives wet or dry and when trimmed produces a thick bush shrub privacy effect. However left on its own without trimming it will get a bit more tree like and that is fine too. It will sucker some but comparing these two plants for my purpose hands down winner is the wax myrtle.