Sounds like the fence is a good first step followed by some tall fast growing trees that will help block the sound. I assume the trees should be picked carefully according to your climate. It seems more natural if they went along with the natural trees.

I would want something that blocked the view all year. Hopefully they will get tall enough that their grass does not do well real close to the fenceline so that they are more likely to setup their lawnchairs a bit further from your home.

Rick, what's your planting zone? How much sun would the trees get if they were planted next to the fence (i.e. What direction is the fence on)? How much space are you willing to allow for the hedge? You mention the houses being close, so just wondering how much room you have for trees.

If you have the space for Leyland's, I would highly recommend you consider Thuja 'Green Giant' instead. They are much healthier, fuller, and extremely fast growing like Leyland. I ignored the advice on these forums and planted 5 leylands a couple years ago.. at the same time I also planted 2 green giants. Both have grown very fast, but the leyland's look terrible. I will be replacing with more gg's this fall.

If the fence is blocking an eye sore like messy neighbors, it will certainly be a selling feature for the house in the future... probably won't add a ton of value, but likely a nice selling point. As far as noise... don't expect even the densest hedge to do much there, it won't. For that you might consider adding a nice water feature to your yard. Sound of running water is nice and will really help drown out the neighbors. Good Luck!

Thanks for the thoughts. I live in zone 8, heavy rainfall - environment similar to a north american rain forest. Native plants are cypress, hemlock, fir and sword fern predominately.

It is a difficult situation to describe. They are not malicious, simply oblivious. Still, I have weird dreams they have turned their yard into a theme park or have taken over part of mine all the time. :)

I once had a similar situation. The neighbors had lots of land but chose to put a horseshoe pit right near the window of my kitchen. Tried to talk them no avail.

Then I started playing at very low volume, world music of indigenous rain forest people. One speaker in my kitchen, and one speaker out the window. Didn't want to start a music war-the tunes I played were quiet and very zen. Within a week or two they moved to their horseshoe pit to their back yard.

Don't know how this worked but we have now been coexisting for 28 years without a real fence-just a bunch of bushes and lilac trees divide our land that we both enjoy.

The only reason to plant Leylands is if you need tremendous height of screening, but there is no indication that this is the case. Also, a fence is, essentially, like a wall ... but of limited height. Rather than designing a scheme where the planting you install also screens the fence, it's only only necessary to add screening ABOVE the fence. In front of the fence it might be more interesting to create a display of trunks with low height plants below ... or a combination that includes this in the scheme. When deciding on what plants to use, consider if screening will be as necessary in the winter when people are generally outdoors much less.

As far as resale value with the fence, I can imagine how a prospective buyer perceives the fence will depend entirely on its looks, layout and condition. If those are good, it should help resale. Considering that most ordinances do not count ornamentation added to the top of the fence as part of its restricted height (within reason, of course) it would probably be best to use a fence that has some charm to it, rather than one that is totally plain. (For your own benefit, too.)

To me, it sounds like that housing area revels in not having a fence, or at least, it seems so natural that a fence might disrupt it. So you could achieve the fence effect, meaning a boundary for your neighbor, by planting something instead of erecting a fence.

Shrubs would be nicer to look at but I would think some kind of fence as you said your neighbors are piling junk right on the property line. A fence would say 'this is the line, don't cross' where as shrubs could be injured or killed depending on what they stack near or even against them.

I'd probably fence it if I were in your shoes, though I would not use wood because it rots and has a tendency to echo a good bounce back of noise if there are children playing as children will do. When we moved in our place in the woods, we had chain link fencing around the perimeter of the garden in the back and between our cottage and the one next door (which is very close to us). I let the fence fill completely in with easy to maintain glacier ivy so it looks like a living fence. It absorbs noise well and melds with the pines, bay laurels, and old oaks. Though your neighbor may freak out that you have foliage on a fence, wood may be the choice after all. Stain it to maintain it. You can further put shrubs or small trees on your side to mask noise.

Thanks for the various ideas. I decided to go with a much smaller section of fence that only blocks the more unpleasant area. I spoke with the neighbor and even visited their house so they should show me their "great yard and landscaping". Interestingly, from their home they cannot see my house at all. I realized they would not be able to see the fence from their home so it would provide the privacy break I'd like without making them feel like I am trying to seal them off.

I would go with cedar fencing. We've had cedar stockade fencing for 22 years and haven't had to replace it yet. So I wouldn't say it rots very fast at all. Sometimes a post will rot that is in contact with the ground and you might have to replace that. We have a couple of wobbly posts at the moment, but that's after 22 years. We can stabilize the posts without replacing and will probably be replacing it in the next five years. It still looks very good.

Good luck! I feel for you. I had a neighbor who suddenly cut down a 50 year old gorgeous Sugar Maple that I used to look at from my kitchen window every time I stood at the sink. I actually cried. They wanted to put in a pool, which they rarely use.