More information needed. Are you coastal zone 10, or more inland? Do you know your Sunset zone? What direction does the house face? Is this a sunny area or a shady area? How much room is available between the window and the sidewalk and street? What about the rest of the garden -- what is growing there already, and how will this bush stuck in front of a window relate to it?

You might consider using one of the smaller sized Acacia species such as A. cognata, A. boormanii, A. covenyi, A. cultriformis or A. iteaphylla, all of these are smaller sized evergreens with lacy foliage or interesting form, and would be about the size of a Japanese maple. A bamboo with lacy character and similar size might use the Mexican Weeping Bamboo, Otatea acuminata aztectorum, which can also be a nice clumping/weeping specimen.

If you were instead more interested in something that could perhaps be planted as a grouping, and would have upright flowering stems to add privacy/interest, you might consider using one of the taller forms of Kangaroo Paw, Anigozanthus flavidus, or Walking Iris, Neomarica caerulea. I could also see planting one of the brilliantly foliaged colored Leucadendron salignum hybrids such as 'Blush' or 'Safari Sunset'.

You might also consider using a multi-layered planting that combines different heights, with the tallest out nearer the street backed by shorter accent plants viewable from the window, perhaps even in combination with a semi-transparent wood screen/fence/pergola to give you a view of the garden yet be more private from the street.

I don't think you'd like any kind of tree in front of your window. It would defeat the purpose of a window and make the room very dark.

Instead invest in a privacy blind. They have ones that look sheer, let in light, and you can see out but no one can see in.

As for the noise factor build yourself a flower bed with evergreens and shrubs and perennial flowers near the street

Noise goes right through plants.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll be looking up these plants and seeing if they'll work.

More details...Sunset 17, but really not much fog. The site is in shade about half the day and faces southwest. Currently there is a 4' bricked-in slightly elevated flowerbed running along the front of the house with miscellaneous plants stuffed in by the previous owners. (I would not put a bougainvillea in front of the single garden spigot, with a hibiscus anchoring each end and a row of mini-agapanthus along the front.)

I do like the idea of putting in a larger planting, getting rid of some lawn, and putting the plant screen further from the window. We have about 35 feet from the bed to the sidewalk. On one side of the lawn (but not really impacting the window area) is a large southern magnolia...so the lawn is in pretty bad shape anyway and we'd like to reduce it.

Perhaps some measurements are in order--we should do a proper plan for the whole area instead of little bits that may or may not go together. I'll have to invest in a Kevlar shark suit for the bougie.

I'm not concerned with noise--I just want to be able to open the window for fresh air without cleaning my room for the passersby. :)

Thanks again. I suspect I'll be back for more guidance!

I had assumed you were in southern California, so had mentioned plants that take less water and handle drought better. Being in a zone 17 climate and having all that room between street and window, gives you plenty of room to create a garden space to the inside of a screen nearer the street, and coordinating this as an overall plan probably makes a lot of sense. Larger growing shrubs that could be limbed up as small trees might also work well for you, and some of my favorites for a sun situation such as you describe might include Arbutus unedo compacta, Tibouchina urvilleana or T. heteromalla, Metrosideros collina 'Springfire', Toyon, Ceanothus cultivars such as C. Concha, C. Julia Phelps, Fremontodendron California Glory.

If you have never been to the newer retail nursery, Flora Grubb in the Bayview District, you should check it out, as they have a lot of the srubs/small trees I mentioned, and specialize in plants for Sunset zones 16 and 17. The Dry Garden Nursery here in Oakland and Annie's Annuals in Richmond are also great sources for inspiration and creative plant choices for our local climate.

Thanks for the sources, Bahia. I'm originally from southern CA so you probably picked up my accent. I have a feeling I'm about to spend a lot of money on my front yard. I should probably hire a pro (any suggestions on locals?).

I'm allowed to not want to water in Fremont, aren't I? =) We have a 50+ year old sprinkler system that not only does a bad job on the lawn, but doesn't really hit the front bed. I need to redo it so I can water the tree and nothing else. (I must keep the tree--it hides the powerlines.)

The flower bed across the front of the house is formal and angular and might fight with an informal screen. Hmm. Yes, I need to tear out everything! I do want a garden room of sorts out front so we might spend more time out there. And so I won't feel self-conscious about not making the bed.

Big project ahead.

You are actually to be congratulated for wanting to install less thirsty plants for the redo of the garden, and in Fremont that probably makes sense as it does get pretty hot there compared to my zone 17 conditions here in Berkeley. You'll find that there are almost too many good landscape designers to choose from once you start searching, and I might refer you to the blog site for my friend Michelle at Garden Porn(google it and you'll get the website). She features a wealth of local designers including her own garden on her blog.

I might mention that the UC Davis Arboretum publishes a web list of their top 50 picks for easy plants to grow under central valley conditions, and it actually makes a pretty good list for plants that grow very well here in the SF Bay Area without much more than once or twice a month irrigation. It is a good starting point if nothing else, and here is the link:

http://www.arboretum.ucdavis.edu/allstars_browse.aspx

If you would like suggestions for local landscape designers, email me off list and I could give you a few suggestions, although most of the people I know do most of their work here in the Oakland/Berkeley/San Francisco area. I have done residential design myself( for developer model homes in the Fremont/Union City/San Jose area in the past, but have to remember to switch gears when doing design work down there and remember that you are both hotter and windier in summer with almost no fog, and in many ways, the climate is the most similar to parts of southern California compared to anywhere else here in the SF Bay Area.

Good luck with your project, and take the time to enjoy the process, starting over with a new garden can actually be a lot of fun, if it doesn't stress you out financially...

Thanks again, Bahia, for taking the time to help out. I very much appreciate it!

So I want an evergreen Japanese maple substitute. Light, lacy, not too big.

I'd consider a selection of Nandina domestica, heavenly bamboo, for this purpose. Light, lacy, doesn't grow too tall and most offer some sort of foliage coloring that approximates that of a Japanese maple. Evergreen and relatively drought tolerant, especially once well established. This plant is considered the 'friendship plant' and good luck in Asia and is frequently planted by the front door. Japanese legend has it that speaking to it will relieve the worries of the head of the household :-)

Have you sketched out your front yard to scale or rough scale? And, are you thinking screening "front on" to the window, or are the side angles of view important?

You may want to look at some photos of front-yard gardens or entryway gardens. It seems you first want to decide the amount of clear space you want in front of the window and whatever else is at the front of the home which will depend on things like how much light you want to let in and what other functions you want to achieve in that front area, now or in future. You might end up using the same plants but you might site them differently. One way would be the JM 10 ft or so from the window, and another might be to preserve space for a front entry patio or walkway and organize plantings around that. Plus, you want to do a sketch as if you're facing your home--?? front elevation drawing--I don't know the term--with the placement of the windows and doors, garage, major architectural elements. Then overlay trees or shrubs and it will help you see whether you might like the JM(or any other tree) in front of the window when you are inside, but when you are passing by your house (curb appeal) it does look like it is stuck in front and/or puts the front of the home off-balance. You are still in charge of what are your priorities, but you will be able to see what are the tradeoffs.

The blinds idea is fine too, and not incompatible with screening plantings, as a combination of not-too intrusive blocking devices may have the desired effect.

Bahia-

Wish you could hear my computer when it reads your posts. All those botanical names sound so delicious...Trippingly on the voice synthesizer's tongue. Why am I so fixated these days on CA plants? Probably cuz it's getting cold around here and I've got a bad case of Left Coast Envy. My garden's already too cold to play in. Can't seem to talk my Austrian husband into going west. So, instead, I get my cheap thrill reading your extensive posts full of kindness to strangers.

Sorry, Fori, I'm blanking on anything helpful. Hmmmm...I like JM's too? Sounds like you have a nice space to work with. Don't envy your battle with the Bougie man.

I dunno, I'd do T. urvilleana but not T. heteromalla. Mine was in a Northern exposure in Oakland and every heat spell fried those beautiful leaves. I'd think a SW exposure in Fremont would pretty much do the same, wouldn't it? T. urvilleana loves sun, in comparison. Tends to be leggy unless pinched back and watered, though.

Wellspring,
I am glad that such a simple thing as talking about plants for a California garden lifts those late fall blahs. I would suppose if you had an attached conservatory/greenhouse in your situation it wouldn't be a fantasy to be able to grow some of these things yourself. There are plenty of greenhouse plant growers on the east coast to indulge such a gardening taste, but the web site for Kartuz Greenhouses out of Vista, California would be another site that would really let you fantasize about warm climate plants.

It must be tough to have the gardening season already over with, and I won't rub it in that we still have plenty of things that can continue to give a fall garden the look of summer into late December here. Especially cloud forest plants from higher elevations of southern Mexico have provided a wealth of late fall/early winter blooming plants such as larger shrubby Salvias for the winter garden, and there are also all the various South African Aloes and Proteas, Leucadendrons and Ericas that are just now starting to color up and bloom. We may not have the shorts and shirt sleeve days in winter that Los Angeles and San Diego have in December and January, but there are still plenty of things that continue blooming all year here.

I was visiting a friend's garden in Danville on Saturday, and she already had Anemone hybrida, Paperwhite Narcissus in bloom, and I took over a big bouquet of orange blooming Hedychium greenii, Abutilon, burgundy Salvia van-houtii, and a great foliage plant with yellow and green variegation, Iresine herbstii. I was pleasantly surprised that it actually felt hot,(78F) for the outdoor potluck which we ate out by the pool under a 40 foot long ramada that was set up for the 40 or so people attending. I was especially entertained with my conversation with Inge Hoffman, who used to run a palm seed collection and mail-order business, recounting her stories of collecting palms and cactus seed from around the world, and working as a consultant for a Thai gentleman who owns one of the largest private gardens open to the public in Thailand. I hate to see the summer season finally end, but we do need the rains, and by the end of October it will be rainy, windy, wet and chilly, and keep me inside looking out at the garden rather than getting wet outside working in it!

Jkom is probably correct that Tibouchina heteromalla is not as good a choice for hot sun in a Fremont zone 17 location as it is here in Berkeley/Alameda zone 17, where it easily handles full sun without harm, as long as it gets irrigation of sufficient quantity. My plants never burn, and are simply covered with gorgeous blooms at the moment and those large silvery fuzzy leaves. Tibouchina organensis is another Tibouchina in full bloom right now, and while more tender, has exotic deep jewel like dark green leaves and fuzzy red stems that make this one look even more tropical than the more common T. urvilleana. I love this small tree for the early fall to late December bloom period, and the deep red/burgundy stems and leaf undersides in combination with the deep green sparkly foliage and the soft violet white paler center flowers are spectacular right now.

These are all great ideas. Too many! Clearly this is going to be a while, especially since the project escalated. But it's for the best. I've got my measurements now and need to get it drawn to scale. I think the planting, if close to the window, only needs to be about 6 feet high for me to feel unashamed by the laundry. I'll still get plenty of light because the window is pretty tall. But I much prefer the idea of enclosing a larger chunk of yard.

Wellspring, the California plants are awfully nice. I lived in the upper midwest for a while and missed many of them, especially citrus. I don't think there's a more perfect plant. And after Michigan, I don't find anything especially cold or wet about Bay area winters. =D

Bahia-

You'll have to stop that. Wait. Take that back. Don't stop...

Maybe I could go on the talk show circuit with my case of LCE Disorder. Weather gets cold, grey, close to zero and the symptoms emerge. Obsession with sun, tropical plants, the Beach Boys, and governer's who have the same accent as my husband. Wait, scratch that last one.

I do get to come to Marin Co. about once every 8 or 9 years. My stay is for about 3 weeks and I go home with a new guide dog. So, I have this on-again, off-again thing with California. San Francisco does sort of remind me of Melbourne, Australia, which even has the fog.

Fori- I'm glad your thinking of going with a more intentional enclosure of your front garden space. That's an option not readily available everywhere and one that can really expand the interaction between interior and exterior space. That's another California asset -- the use of outside garden areas, particularly in the seasons after the high heat of summer.

Heavens...78 degrees. I'm swooning here.

I did get my second Guide Dog back in 1994 from San Rafael in Feb - March. Nearly every training session involved working in the rain. Still, it wasn't like thunderstorms, tornados, and drenching downpours here in central Illinois. In other words, you could actually go out in it and the dogs found it refreshing.

Ah, well. My current Guide, Winna, just turned 8 years old. We will be thinking about retirement for her in about a year. So maybe I'll head for CA in the winter of 2011.

Wellspring

Wellspring,
Time your next trip for either mid April/May or September/early October if you want the best of a San Rafael climate, these months are when I advise any potential out of town guest to visit for best weather. I know the guide dog school in San Rafael you refer to, and did some consulting work out there about 15 years ago. A beautiful campus, and a great group of people supporting a worthy cause. I enjoy your take on gardens even though you can't really see, (I assume you are completely blind?) I don't know if I could sustain an interest in gardens and plants if I lost my sight, I'd much rather go deaf any day, but I shouldn't tempt the gods...

Fori, sorry to keep highjacking your thread, hopefully I've earned my keep as well, and everyone on this thread has been so pleasant that I don't want it to end, it is like talking with friends I have never met in person...

I am enjoying the discussion!