Would you consider using Bougainvillea? It has topiary potential, comes in many colours, repels intruders, is fairly drought tolerant, responds to pruning. Another possible is using Juniperus chinensis 'Kaizuka'. A bit 'retro' but may suit your house/yard. If you remove the leading branches then it will widen more than growing tall. Acca sellowiana is a possible - then you could eat the results, too! It has the plus of being evergreen and the minus of liking some water over the summer.

The posts are weakest in withdrawal, so lift them up. If they are bedded in concrete you can lift the entire anchor. Drill a 1/2 inch hole through the post about 6 inches above the ground. Use a pair of 10 foot 2x4s as levers. Put a bolt though the 1st 2x4 about 2 feet from the end, than through the post, then through the second 2x4. Put a nut on just to hold everything in place (not even tight). Soak the ground ground the post with a garden hose for about 10 minutes, push the post from side to side (maybe add more water), then lift it out with the 2x4s. If you do not have enough lift, push the post sideways to keep it from slipping down and add some cinder blocks under the short end, then lift again. An old fashioned bumper jack and some chain used to be an easy way, but bumper jack seem to have gone the way of the dodo. They had a 36-48 inch lift range. Really nice for yanking out posts.

"Posted by matt_m (My Page) on Sat, Jun 8, 13 at 0:11 I really appreciate all of the advice. We are situated on a hill, near the top -- in 10 years, flooding has never been an issue, but it has with people who live further down the road." Engineering is an exact science, based upon assumptions, and in that light an engineer is required to provide a design that budgets for and meets the minimum design criteria for the area in which you reside. IE., overturning moment; at heights over 6', wind governs, so the design will budget for the installation of privacy slates or removal of the fence fabric and wood panel placed between the steel posts, which is a common design alternative. "(one an engineer at Sunroc)" I would urge you to seek the advice of a private professional civil engineer. " the winning idea is a 8" - 10" deep footing, 12" to 16" inches wide, with a 6" block wall or concrete wall on top of that, centered on the footing, with rebar uprights every three or four feet, as well as at least two bars the length of the footing and at least one bar lengthwise in the wall." With the exception of the 2nd piece of rebar in the footing, this is a typical "garden wall", not a retaining wall. Generally speaking, a wall less than 2'6" in height "is not" considered to be retaining. No soil added around the trees! Just running the wall in a straight line down the property line. "putting the posts directly in the wall" Which would be ok, except that you have something called "cost", which is the required embedment of rebar in masonry walls, which is 2" and cannot be attained using 6" block. "I might as well pour a concrete wall!" Not hardly! "One thought I had was this -- if I build the wall on my neighbor's side of the property line (he doesn't seem to care one way or the other, especially since I'm doing all the work and paying for it), is it then his wall?" If you are, indeed, contemplating this, you need to obtain and easement based upon the final wall design, because if you take a "disney land" approach to this, if you have a lender for you property, you'll find them defending ONLY their intreats and NOT YOU. There are prescribed and restricted "drain fields" which are designed to protect "downstream" home/properties from from natural occurring moisture from affecting that habitability. Those exist in your case and must be addressed. It's called "hydrology", and will be addressed by an engineer. "Not sure about how that would affect things." You, in addition to an engineer, might want to have a chat with a real estate attny.

With the rails and posts in good shape, it's a realtively easy job to remove and replace a section, as long as the new section has the same link dimensions. If you study the construction of the link mesh, you will see it is constructed of interconnected, flattened spirals that run top to bottom. After releasing the wire ties holding the chain link mesh to the rails and posts, at one end of the damaged section, release one spiral at the top and bottom from the adjoining ones (where they are twisted together) and 'unscrew' it. (You'll need to pull some slack into the section where you are performing this.) Repeat at the other end of the damaged section, replace with new chain link mesh and reverse the above procedure for installation. There may be DIY books at your library that explain this better than I, and with pictures, too. BTW, I have a make-do method of pulling slack into a fence with S-hooks and rope. Your local rental center may have a hook, rope and pulley devise designed for the purpose.