Hi Kristi, and welcome to Gardenweb.

I saw your other post, and you said you like cottage style gardens, and you also want to shift to more water-wise plants.

Jkom has a cottage garden that uses scarcely any water at all, so you may want to do a search for her posts to get some ideas.

I think your beds should be expanded to at least eight feet wide to establish the cottage look. That way you can plant shrubs that will give you screening, color, and bloom and create an interesting border while conserving water. (I find that as long as my dog has a circle to race through, the amount of grass is less important than the length of the run.)

Other posters here are expert on native and low-water use shrubs, and they will chime in. I like golden arborvitae in cottage gardens. They require almost no water once fully established, give a nice bright green background for flowers, and never need to be pruned. I also like tall bearded irises in a cottage garden, and we can grow reblooming varieties. They take very little water.

I use trees for screening. I have some sad redwoods yearning for coastal climes limbed up to the top of the fence, and I have avocado trees on the other side. Both of these trees are very thirsty, though. There are better choices.

Renee

There's a couple of varieties of Podocarpus, which I think is a very graceful medium-tree that will grow surprisingly fast if it's given good soil, decent drainage and adequate water for a few years.

I have tried pittosporum but although it grows fast, it is very lacy and not the greatest screener.

Yellow cestrum (shrub) is one of the 'original' cestrums - East Bay Nursery/Berkeley brought it back onto the market. A fast grower, but it needs at least a 4' bed and it will take a few years to get the branches strong enough to not bend unduly after a rain. In my garden, off a soaker hose that I run as seldom as possible, it has gotten 18' tall and screens very well, due to multiple stems and heavy leaf cover. It is a solanum, however, so if your dog is inclined to chew sticks, may not be the best choice.

You should move your roses. Wonderful as they are, roses need good air circulation so they will never be good screeners for your situation.

Don't think you need to screen every inch. Concentrate on the points where neighbors can actually see you/you can see them. You probably don't need more than three small trees or large shrubs.

If I had your backyard I'd probably make an angled diagonal lawn area to form two triangular beds. That would allow creating a depth of planting that would add interest to what is a basic box shape.

Don't think you have to screen the tops of houses completely, especially if they have no view into your yard. You are 'borrowing' the perspective that there are things beyond your yard. It unconsciously enlarges the feel of the overall space and leads the eye up into the sky.

Thanks hosenemesis and jkom52 for the thoughtful replies, that is very helpful! :) I really like the look of the golden arvorvitae. I'd have to measure to see how long 8 feet would put us at. Our dog is a ball runner - not so much a circle kinda guy, but we'll see. I do want to expand to beds at least a foot or two at the last. Advocado is supposed to be highly toxic to dogs so that wouldn't be an option for us.

The podocarpus is nice too!

I think we have "Pittosporum tenuifolium" in our upper left side near our garage. I'll post a pic later of it. It's fine and not really around where we hang out but makes a nice screener. It was here when we moved in. I do worry because I think it is also toxic to dogs and the leaves fall right in his tanbark bathroom-area.

Yellow cestrum looked pretty but yeah anything that's high on the toxicity list for dogs is out.

Thanks again for the ideas. The more open area that you see in the 2nd pic is the one I want to focus the most on. The neighbors are always out there in their yard and on this little balcony. They have weird people over and area always swearing and talking about strange things. The balcony directly overlooks our yard and makes me uncomfortable so that's the biggest privacy issue. The lemon, cheery, and plum have the other areas covered to a large degree but I do like the feeling of being enclosed in green so almost every inch would be nice. :)I agree, the spot where the roses are would be perfect for a tree.

Arborvitae are too slow growing for the icky neighbor side.

If you really want to cut down on water use, the taller ceanothus like Ray Hartman may get tall enough to screen out the neighbors. They grow very fast as well. The only issue is that they can be short-lived when given water in the summer.

I don't know if it will give you the look you're going for, but Lagunaria patersonii is another nice fast growing tree. The blooming time is short, only a few weeks in early summer for me, but the leaves are a nice contrast to darker green plants. The pods are supposedly irritating to the skin, however, but I have found that they tend to stay on the tree. I don't think they are toxic though.

wayyyy too much lawn. (sez the lawn freedom fighter!)
Edibles should not be near neighbors. You don't know what they're doing on the other side of that "privacy". :-( (making underage weapons of mass contraception pr0n!!)

Could you be worrying too much about chance of canine toxicity?

Cottage gardens style is mixed style. You don't want solid 'uniform' hedge (yes?)
Push a few big Japanese camellias in there. Tall. (Slow. I think all suffer petal blight. Depends if you care.)
Old pure species Pittosporum tobira. Tough. Is like a small tree (I've seen 12' ish tall when dry. lower parts open up, but the top stays full. i don't know if they will maintain solid fill when in a row.) I don't know if older p.t. would have trouble near a lawn, but 'wheeleri' seem OK near lawns.
Pittosporum undulatum "Victorian Box". miniature tree.
Feijoa can hedge. Feijoa wants to grow deep (fat, not upright). Needs *some* water despite the "drought tolerant" you read.
Bananas. Tall, but ragged in winter. Love water. Style is more of an Indonesian cottage garden, than English cottage garden :-)
Leaner/clamber vines with sparse support (a stake or two)? Maybe Burmese Honeysuckle?
There are a few(?) clumping 'timber' bamboos.
Eriobotrya deflexa. Miniature tree.
Coprosma repens. I've seen it only in foggy-side north peninsula. But sunset implies it should be good in warm mid/southbay

Ceanothus!

Thanks Stanhopia, I really love the look of the ray harman and love that it is drought tolerant! I wonder how that would look pair with a citrus? I don't mind edibles being on neighbor side. I pick our lemons every weekend and you can prune them to not grow too much on that side.

Lagunaria patersonii seems okay - but hard to find pictures of it in a screening capacity, hmm.

Thank CCdry, I agree it's a bit too much lawn. Gradually do want to expand the beds but it seems to be very low water-usage so for now it's not too much of a concern. I also want to round out the be edges so it's not so boxy. We do play ball a lot back their with our doggy and the grass is comfortable for him. I do intend on converting our front lawn to clover, though. The main step is to work on getting some trees planted for the privacy. :)

Yes I worry a bit too much but figure if there are non-toxic vs. toxic options it's nice to go with the non-toxic.

Yes definitely prefer not to have uniform hedges - want a mix of trees, mixed with vines/hedges.

Oooh the Japanese Camilia is beautiful! I think that would look great next to citrus also. We have a camilia out front, I don't know what variety, though. I'm not too concerned with petal issues as long as the tree doesn't come tumbling down lol. In fact, we may even have one on our patio area. I thought it was a magnolia but looks a lot like the camellia pics. I'll have to post it and see if anyone recognizes it!

Would love to have a banana tree! I am only loosely wanting to follow a cottage garden look in the back. It's more the front that I want to have that look in eventually (but hubby still wants a lawn so it will be clover and some of the layered look on the beds). I'll have to do more research on whether bananas actually can grow in this climate? It seems like they are always imported.

Thanks again all! :)

Look into Hardy Japanese Banana, Musa basjoo, I think it is the easiest banana to grow in cooler climes. My neighbor up here in Sonoma county has a few, they look good in the summer but not so good in the winter.

Bamboo makes an excellent screen, grows quickly, and if you choose the right type it doesn't need too much water. Just be sure you want it because once it's in you can't get it back out... clumping bamboo is less invasive, but running bamboo can be controlled with underground barriers. I've been in a few backyards that were screened with bamboo and they were beautiful and very private.

I'm in the process of attempting to screen my backyard (it will take a while because I've got over 300 linear feet that need to be screened) and to break it up my friend who is a landscape architect recommended using tall shrubs mixed with some giant miscanthus, it grows up to 10' high and being a grass grows quickly.

Good luck, and have fun!

Miscanthus can be pesty if it finds moister areas. I wasn't sure if it managed to reseed, but as I recall, it died out when I let it dry.
Prunus lyonii/ilicifolia. Once you find one, you'll always recognize them. collect seeds, very easy. Fast with water, but I think when older, adjacent lawn water would kill them. Seedlings can be annoying to pull, but I think reseeds more where the ground is sometimes disturbed.
Prunus lusitanica. I've seen at least one near a dryish lawn (not kept fresh soggy green in summer), so can tolerate water. Sunset book says ok if dry, which should be true in sunset 17 and 16.
Rhus ovata. Dryish good (likely good if completely dry, since I don't irrigate very near it), medium speed. Ours has clean neat look. spreading form, but is still youngish.
Pyracantha. Old school, but tough. But thorns, and prefers to send out branches in starblast form (I mention in case you've seen only hacked ones).

I think Dwarf Cavendish is the most common banana. Tops brown off in worse winters, but appear to just stall and get beat up in warmer winters. I also assume most people cut off the old foliage during ... around now? I've seen large fruit, but I don't know what happened in winter.
Won't make hedge, though.

It's obvious you are a very loving & responsible doggie owner and that's wonderful! I have 2 dogs that play in the yard everyday and only recently learned that my aloe vera, Azaleas, Hostas & cyclamin, Chrysanthemums & Ivy are toxic to dogs, yet I've had them in the garden for quite some time. My next door neighbor has an avocado tree that hangs over into my yard and it has never been an issue. My biggest worry mushrooms!

But as far as a screen~ I'll chime in with my suggestion~ Dodonaea viscosa cv. purpurea (Purple Dodonaea). You can almost plant it and forget about it. They are evergreen, very drought tolerant and fast growers and do well in our zone. They can get really tall & wide but not invasive at all. They need to be kept pruned (about once a year or every other year)for desired size & shape and to look their best when they get older, but are super easy to prune since the branches are spread out. A few cuts and your done.
I think it would be nice for a cottage style as well because they are very informal looking. Just make sure you don't plant them in an area where you have other plants that require a lot of water because over watering will kill it. I have one in a long deep planter that's built in to my deck (approx. 3'deep x 8' long x 12" depth) and give it about 2-3 feet around the roots where I don't water as frequently as I do for plants at the other end of the planter. If you dont like the purple, there is also the green variety.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:520393}}

I have exactly the same situation, but due to my location am limited by periodic heavy frost in the winter --occasional 28 lows.
A neighbor's 2nd story window looks directly down the length of our back deck. We had a hedge of photina fraseri which completely blocked this but died. We have another hedge of photina that completely blocks out our uphill neighbors 14' light poles and basketball hoop. Once established it is very drought tolerant (never water) and takes pruning very well. It has attractive large glossy deep green foliage, evergreen and new foliage is tinge an attractive red. Also some neighbors have espaliered theirs to only 18" width though it makes it less dense.My only complaint is that it needs to be sheared to stay confined and in the spring has small white flowers whose scent I dislike. I tried planting CaraCara Orange trees to replace the ones that died but I don't think they're going to be tall enough or get enough sun.

I was wondering if you have standard lemon trees and if they afford good privacy from a neighbor's higher vantage point?

Based on the marks on your fence, your irrigation system needs work. Convert to drip before you plant anything else. Saves $$ in the long run and your fence will last a little longer.