Surinam cherry plants are often trimmed to a hedge and grow in zone 9. I don't know offhand how they'll react to shade.

And I think landscapers sometimes use loquat for hedges.

guavas, or, with a little more trouble, blueberries.

Hmm....how much shade can blueberries tolerate? I think the area only gets full sun part of the day at best. Also, does anyone know the major difference between the sunshine blueberries and the Jewel and Emeral varieties I ordered from Trueblue? Would one or the other work as a small hedge?

Seagrapes? How about miracle fruit? Or blackberries?

Guava in z9? Me is interested....

maybe christine will chime in--she has two kinds of guava, both large and productive. pineapple and... some other. she gave me one last year. SO TASTY!!! omg. nothing to do with the things you get at the market...

We replaced one of the shrubs that runs in front of our house with a nice rosemarry.

If the location gets 6 hours of full sun, then you can probably count it as full sun and not worry about the shade. If the location only gets a few hours of sun and the rest of the time is in deep shade, then you may need to work to find something that will thrive in partial sun or shade.

There is another option that would probably do fairly well but require hard pruning to keep it a low hedge. That would be Moringa. It will probably die back to the ground in a hard freeze but it is supposed to grow back from the roots. I don't know how true that is yet as my Moringa has not grown back yet after this year's freezes.

I've had a pineapple plant produce even in a pretty shady spot but pineapple might not really suit as a hedge.

I've seen meyer lemon trees that are more like shrubs but they would probably be too big for a foundation planting.

What is your soil like? If the soil in the location in question is somewhat acidic, blueberries might be worth while. I haven't grown any down here but hope to sometime. I'm hopefully starting with some blackberries this year.

i think blueberries are a great choice mix a couple of varieties. not sure on amount of sun though

tclynx I would love to see that rosemary hedge!

Blueberries require acidic soil and much care .
Fujio guavas make an excellent hedge with little work .
I have both Catlley guavas and Fujio . Excellent edible plants .
They survived temps of 18 degrees for 10 hours this season .
They normally survive temps only down to 26 degrees .
So far so good for mine . Time will tell.

Here is a link that might be useful: Guava Growing in the Florida Home Landscape

Also, rosemary, raspberry, bababerry, and other -berries.

My concern with the bababerries and such is that I know most berries die back to just canes in the winter. I don't think that would be very attractive in front of the house. From what I am reading the sunshine blueberries are evergreen, are the guava? I'm including a picture of the area I want to redo.

Ok Michael, I will chime in now. After much thought, my first choice would be a hedge of feijoa (pineapple guava). They are hardy, evergreen, low maintenance plants that can be grown in hedge form and still maintain compact growth.

I have a couple and I plan on buying more this spring for privacy hedges. Keep in mind that there are two kinds of feijoas. There is an ornamental type that has small fruits that don't taste very good. Then there is the large fruited variety that has a better taste. Just Fruits and Exotics has the large fruiting kind. Those are very rare.

The feijoa also has beautiful flowers. Hopefully you get enough sun to produce some flowers.

My other thoughts would be to use herb bushes as already mentioned: rosemary and bay (the cooking variety).

I have a friend who put in a mass planting of pineapples in front of his house in a filtered sun area, but you would have to be in zone 9b to do that.

Blueberry bushes probably would not work well because the pH around houses is usually on the alkaline side because of lime leaching from the cement foundation.

Because you need the plants to below window level, your choices are more limited.

Best of luck. Let us know what you decided to plant.

Christine

Pomegranate! it just came to my attention.

Ah, feijoa. I ate one of those recently off the tree, in Colombia. It was very exotic, but I'm not sure I'd go much out of my way to eat one again. Maybe it wasn't fully ripe.

True gauva won't persist long in 9a, right?

pnbrown, remember I mentioned that there are 2 types? The small fruited ones taste lousy to me. True guava won't persist in 9a. They die at about 32 degrees. Besides, one of the requirements was that the plant needed to be below window height. I thought of an ormamental pomegranate because they are dwarf, but the fruits aren't desirable.

Christine

Shade tolerant, z9, edible or nicely scented, low hedge that will be OK next to a foundation, AND it has to look nice all year because it's at the front of the house. I've been watching this thread because I had no idea what fruit or veggie might meet these requirements.

You've gotten some interesting ideas, but maybe you should save the edibles for a different spot with a little more sun and think about something that smells good for the front of the house. A dwarf gardenia might be nice, especially if you don't have a gardenia anywhere else in your yard. A small hedge of them would look great all year.
Or camellias. They like the shade. Camellias won't give you a great scent - most don't have a scent at all I don't think - but they'll be beautiful at this time of year when not too many other things are blooming. They are slow growing enough so that you won't have trouble keeping them pruned to the right size.

Be sure to let us know when you decide what to plant!

Kate

I guess I didn't read the OP very well!

I'm starting to agree with you! Maybe instead of edible/scented I'll just go with what looks nice. I would like something that at least attracts birds or butterflies or something. I gues what I'm saying is that if it isn't going to provide me with something to eat or smell it should at least be ecologically friendly and provide the birds or butterflies with something :)

All that aside, my husband wants mexican heather now. Any thoughts? Also, if I remove the Ligustrum that is shading the area, whatever I put there wouldn't have to be as shade tolerant.

Any cherry in bush form may do well. But, they will require extra help over the winter by reenacting chill hours, possibly.

I'm not a fan of Mexican heather because it migrated from my garden out into the lawn. It's everywhere!