Sometimes on forums like this, people seem not to post if they have nothing nice to say. If you search the archives you will see that almost no one here has a high opinion of Leylands. Please, spare future generations the same problems you're having now by not planting any more that will just blow over in the next Sandy 30 years later, or decline from disease sooner. It's particularly funny to see attempts at creating an "estate" feeling by surrounding the house w/hideous walls of leylandii, which look particularly comical when a few of them topple over. At the very least, plant Thuja 'Green Giant' instead, it is more disease resistant. And because it grows slower, less likely to outgrow its roots. Among other things - put some spruces and pines in there if you must stick to cheap conifers. A screen planting should have a variety of plants so that if one becomes prone to a disease you don't lose the entire effect. I think hollies are undervalued as screening plants. Nurseries don't push them because they are more expensive to produce as salable plants than most [screening] conifers. You do have to wait longer though, they are definitely slower than leylands. They don't get as much love here because they aren't conifers. Nellie Stevens is ok but the very large growing hybrid I X koehneana would be even more useful for your lot size. Sadly it's almost unavailable in the trade. McLean Nursery in Balto., MD, has small plants for a reasonable price but they don't ship. The grow about 1' a year for the first 5 years, but then speed up to about 2' a year. As people have posted here previously, the real solution to quick screening is to think about what you are really trying to achieve. Are you trying to entirely block the view from anywhere in your yard to anywhere beyond it? Or do you have an area where you sit that you'd like privacy. In that case build a small screened area with some trellis lathes and grow some annual vines on it.

About the only thing that I can think of (and it's aestetic not for screening) would be a Yew such as: Taxus x media 'Beanpole' or Taxus x media 'Flushing'. I think 'Flushing' will give you the most "screening" but you'll need to plant it fairly close to your shed: It basically should be planted 1 meter away. You 'know' you planted a tree that given time will fit that spot perfectly, in relation to the shed. What you're looking to do now is plant something that ultimately is going to crowd walking space between your shed and eventually your Serviceberry. That includes mowing. The positive aspect of a Yew is you can prune them any which way you want to, including down to bare-inner-wood and they will form new foliage. If it ever came to be that the cultivar 'Flushing' was 5 meters tall and one meter wide and you wanted to cut it down to 1 meter tall, you wouldn't do any damage to it. For me, your plan should've included an evergreen screen behind the serviceberry and the serviceberry being brought forward to give it room away from the screen. If you were to move the servicebery (now or anytime the ground is workable) that seems to be the common sense route and gives you the opportunity to do the job, correctly. Then you could plant, i.e., going from the shed to the left in the photo: (3) Thuja occidentalis 'Hetz Wintergreen' in a straight line and then begin to make an arc with a Picea glauca 'Pendula' then a Picea pungens 'Iseli Fastigiata' aka 'Fastigiata'. That's my opinion, anyways... Hetz Wintergreen first one 1 meter from your shed then on center every 1.5 meter. Picea glauca 'Pendula' 2.5 meters from 'Hetz Wintergreen' Picea pungens 'Iseli Fastigiata' 3.5-4.0 meters from P.g. 'Pendula' This for a screen. You can make adjustments with the two spruces if you want to give them room not to touch. Dax

Thanks to all for the valuable contributions and suggestions. I much appreciate that. Japanese Ligustrum looks highly invasive. I have these next to the A/C unit. This may be a promising one. Mackel, I did not quite understand the monoculture. Are you suggesting to have different species of screening plants? When mature, the screen would look odd, I believe. I will try to post some pics of the landscape soon. In Richardson and Flowermound, I have seen Red Tip Phutonia in hedges about 15ft tall. Thats promising, but looks are bland. I feel Nellie (Illex) Holly is better than RTP. On the same note, Rhus virens (Sumac) looks more like a tree. I aint sure if we can prune and train it to be a screening shrub of 12-15ft tall. I guess the mature height for Sumac is only 8ft. Pl advise. Can you pl suggest nurseries which sells these shrubs/ small trees on retail at best prices? I need to screen a fence line for a length of about 80Ft. I am at cross-roads. Thanks to all of you for valuable inputs.

Both Viburnum and arborvitae aka Thuja are a range of species and cultivars that have wildly diverse growth patterns. You have to know the species for sure and the cultivar if that is being considered. It is like looking photos of dogs; are you talking toy poodle or Great Dane? So something like Thuja Green Giant can get to be as much as 60’ tall and more than 15’ wide and add several feet of growth a year where it is happy, not a plant that is likely to fit in your space. Likewise, hybrid willows are both too large and are also too weak wooded to plant in this space in a hurricane zone. In contrast, I have a Thuja cultivar that isn’t supposed to exceed 4’ over time. IME many cultivars and species of privet are invasive, so research those before you buy and avoid invasives which have the potential to seed not only into your garden, but also into all the neighbors’ gardens and more problematically, into wild areas via bird droppings. So you want to do some research. Visit good quality garden centers. Visit botanic gardens as Embo suggested. Ask about hurricane tolerance and tolerance for pruning and growth rate. Make sure the websites you visit have reliable info for your area. For instance, what may grow only to 10’ in one area may get much larger elsewhere, so looking at a website from a New York State nursery or a national wholesale producer like Monrovia may be unreliable for you. Also, many nursery websites will tell you plant size at 5 years, so those 10’ plants will have the potential to get far larger given more time to grow. Look up the potential invasiveness by putting the plant’s scientific name + Florida + invasive in a search engine to get input. Were you farther north, Emerald Green arborvitae aka Thuja ‘Smaragd’ would be ideal, reaching about 14’ and only 3’-4’ wide but I think they wouldn’t be happy in Florida. So you want some expert advice from local sources in order to choose something that will work for your setting. Do investigate as to whether you can add periodic taller trellis panels for vines to the fence. Then you can intersperse those with other tall plants. Since you live in an area with an HOA see if they can encourage the neighbor to take better care of the yard if they won’t let you increase the fence height. And consider whether you really need 20’ of screening over the whole fenceline. Would a medium height, narrow tree planted in front of upstairs windows on that side suffice and then you can be content with 10’ elsewhere along that boundary?