I know I may get slaughtered for the suggestion but one of my sister's older neighbors has a 50ft long "hedge" of forsythia that they keep sheared as a marker for the property line. The neighbor's husband recently died and it's not kept up as much as in the past when he used to do an amazing razor cut on it. There's an old thread in the PA Forum on the pros and cons of forsythia as a sheared shrub here. But believe it or not, one might not even know what it was during most of the year - particularly from a distance, except when it "lights up" yellow in spring. LOL The thing about this too is that her side of the street has a deer run so they are in and out of the yards and haven't touched it. Alternately, you could try planting a long row of bridal wreath spirea. That is pretty dense during the growing season and can grow moderately tall. It's not too difficult to hand prune to shape.

I really think you need to first of all consider the growing conditions for your roses and whether those conditions are optimal, and secondly, whether the roses you have been selecting are highly disease-resistant or not. I don't know Belle Storey, but Molineux will sometimes have some minor BS problems--though generally I find it quite resistant to disease. Were those roses planted in 6 or more hours of direct sunshine a day? If they got less than that, the lack of sufficient sun will bring about BS problems. If you have a cottage garden, did you leave open space around those roses? If not, that is another reason why the roses might be having BS problems. Were they in your garden for at least 3 years? If not, that is another reason why those roses may have been having problems. Austins and many other roses often take at least several years to settle in and get a really good root system going. Until that happens, they can be less vigorous and more susceptible to various problems. Ask yourself the same questions about the 3 remaining Austins you have. And are they disease-resistant Austins? If you have not selected Austin's roses advertised as disease-resistant (actually, he tends to label them in reverse, as "healthy" and "very healthy" -- even "exceptionally healthy"), that is your first problem that needs to be addressed. I really think that what you are really looking for is disease-resistant roses for a no-spray garden. You should list that up front as the most important criteria. If you use the search box to look up "disease-resistant," you will find all sorts of recommendations on this forum. In my garden, these are some of my disease-resistant roses. Austins: Mayflower (pink, fragrant, highly disease-resistant); Queen of Sweden (light apricot peachy pink, disease-resistant--don't remember fragrance); Jubilee Celebration (salmon pink with touch of yellow at base, disease-resistant--don't remember fragrance); Mortimer Sackler (light to medium pink, disease-resistant--don't remember fragrance). Other disease-resistant Austins I remember off the top of my head from their catalog are Lady of Shalott, Princess Alexandria of Kent, Susan Williams-Ellis, The Pilgrim. There are others also. I remember these because I was closely considering them. For disease resistance, there are also the rugosas. I've grown Blanc Double de Coubert (did I spell that right?) and Fru Dagmar Halstrup--both very nice. I can't make a final judgment yet, but my new Bourbon Mystic Beauty (from Roses Unlimited) and its twin or maybe identical rose Souvenir de la Malmaison is wonderful and has (so far) had no disease problems. If you want to go more modern, here are some disease resistant ones I grow: Elina, Eutin, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Well Being, Earth Song. Then there are also the Knock Out type roses, plus a relative named Home Run. They are all highly disease-resistant, and while I have a couple of them, can't say that I highly recommend them due to lack of bloom beauty. I hope some of that is helpful. Good luck in your search--but remember that there is no such thing as a disease-free rose--just some roses that are more resistant than others to disease. Kate

BAHIA ~ The hebes in my last garden did GREAT for the entire 6+ years I owned the house. Thanks for the suggestion of Crowea, tho - never heard of it before. It's a little shorter and less dense than what I had in mind, but could work. I'm hoping the hedge will be between 3-4' tall and wide, so I don't think the Lavenders you mentioned get big enough. Diplacus aurantiacus is a little rangy for what I had in mind, and Arctostaphylos 'Howard McMinn' too large, but Callistemon 'Little John' sounds like a good possibililty - thanks! Maybe I need to consider a less formal looking mixed hedge? WANDA~ I love Polygala 'Petite Butterfly' and just planted 5 of them in my new front yard. They could also work well in the back for this small hedge - thanks! AL~ I've had good experiences in Encinitas with Hebe 'Amy', but have been told that sometimes they do fail due to phytopthera (sp?). I just love them, tho! Thanks to you all for your suggestions!

You are going to have electricity to the building right? It won't be much use having a workshop or studio without electricity. Are you interested in having air conditioning? Some type of propane furnace would probably make sense. Put the propane tank outside and run a minimal amount of ductwork and you're good. You can turn the temperature down when it's not is use. When you use the building you walk in turn the thermostat up and do whatever you want to do.