All that beautiful land wasted with water guzzling grass and all the chemicals that go into keeping it green. I hate grass; to me where there is grass something beautiful was stripped to make room for it. If that was my property it would be gone and a forest planted. I love woodlands and I live in one of the most beautiful places in the country (o; Seriously you want privacy then don't just go for trees along your property line just go wild with trees of all sizes. Cryptomeria radicans are fast growing and I love not only the feathery branches but the reddish bark too. Not sure if it's an option for where you live but there are plenty of evergreens that will. If you must have some grass just keep some around your house. IMO CA is the worse place for grass, too many people that need their pools and grass then you want our water (o;b Before you blast me for being a California hater the white Irish side of my family were born and lived in Ca since the first settlers went there. We used to own most of all what is Healdsburg now. I've lived here in WA for many years now and will never move back. The rest of my family is in Healdsburg, Santa Rosa and Paradise. I just finished landscaping at my last place in time to move to a new house; the old one is being torn down. I'm taking as much stuff with me as possible, and so I will start again. Cryptomeria's will be planted, the mossy grass that was left by the last owners will be destroyed and a forest will go in it's place (o: Whatever you do I hope it turns out beautiful; imo anyone that plants trees is only improving the planet, so even if you don't take up most of that lawn the trees you add will make that drab acreage shine! *G*

Ten to twelve feet puts you in the large shrub rather than tree range. Certain viburnums (V. sargentii 'Susquehanna' is one)would work, as would Magnolia stellata and Physocarpus 'Diablo'. There are others as well. If you plan it carefully, you can get a long bloom season and perhaps berries as well. Just remember, most will get as wide as they are tall.

If you do not want to install a stucco fence, if city code allows intall a short electric fence along the back property line to discourage wild animals from invading and eating your landscaping. Then Plant two rows of Thuja Plicata Green Giants in a staggered pattern for the entire length of your house. Plant all the trees on 10 foot centers, and be sure to dig the planting holes for the back row of trees at least 6 feet away from the easement. Also, space the center holes for the front row of trees at least 10 feet infront of the back row. X,,,X,,,X,,,X,,,X...X...X...X...X...X...X ...X...X,,,X...X...X...X...X...X...X...X county drainage easment, county drainage easement As you can see from the planting example created by the rows of Xs above, it will take 21 trees planted on 10 feet centers to cover each 100 linear feet of your back boundry that you want to plant with Thuja Plicata Green Giants. If you want to plant them for nearly the length of your home and and if that linear length is more than 200 feet, then you will need to plant more than 42 of these trees. If you wanted to plant the entire 400 yard linear boundry line than you will need to plant 84 of these trees. If you can purchase 84 one gallon sized potted trees, purchasing that many should be much easier on your budget. For each of these one gallon size trees you choose to purchase just predig holes 3 feet wide in diameter by 10 inches to 1 foot deep. Also pre install a drip watering system with outlets, which once the trees are planted, can be positioned to water each tree individually. A high graded quality one gallon Thuja Plicata Green Giant tree should be anywhere from 12 to 18 inches tall and have a well filled in pyramid shape. If the winters are mild in your part of California, then one gallon trees that are watered correctly and given slow release non burning fertilizer at the beginning of each growing season, should be expected to acclimate fairly quickly and grow at least 6 to 12 inches during the first year after you plant them. The next year if you have been good to keep them watered properly, and fertized at the approprate times, they should grow at least an addtional 3 feet. By the end of the 3rd year if you have still kept them watered at the right amounts, and fertilized appropriately, then they should have grown an additional 5 feet. That means your trees by the end of the 3rd year, could at the very least have grown to be about 11 feet tall. By that time, it is possible that they could have spread enough, if you planted two staggered rows to almost be giving you a solid wall affect for at least the 4 feet up the trees' height. Every year there after they should grow at about 5 feet, and as long as you keep them fertilized properly their skinny new top growth should keep filling out at a fairly nice pace. Other wise if the trees are not fertilized at the beginning of their growing season, but if they get the right amount of soil moisture, they will grow taller, but the new growth will look thin and sparce, while taking over six months or more to ever fill out with a well balanced branching pattern. If your trees begin to take on such an appearance, by all means resist the temptation to snip of that thin up shoot of growth. Instead simply begin feeding and watering the tree properlly and it will respond by producing a nice amount of branches on that upshoot of new growth and also, follow that with more new height growth. With these trees, always remember that any branch you cut off at the trunk will not grow back, so if for any reason the lower branches become brown due to the tree not getting enough water, or the tree's roots suffocating from too much water, do not cut those branches off to the trunk. So do not purchase trees which have a lot of lower trunk showing. Also if after plantings the trees encounter too dry of soil and begin to brown. Do not prune away the brown branches. Instead you can remove the dead needles if you would like, and simply begin making certain the tree gets adequate moisture. Then be patient and if you have begun the better care paractices in time, you can be assured the tree will grow new green needles on those bare dead looking branches you left on the tree. If the tree's lower branches begin to die due to soggy soil conditions which suffocate the tree's root system, you should wait to see if these dead looking branches will recover, with proper care of the tree, but in that situation there is not such a high chance these will respond as well as desired. If you plant a wall of these trees, than to prevent them looking boring consider planting a variety of shorter and not to broad of spreading ornamentsl shrubs planted and spaced appropriately infront and lined up with the middle of the front row of tree's spacing. At the feet of the ornamental shrubs you could install a border planting of continuously flowering, or very decorative leafed one to two feet tall potential growing plants or shrubs.

Yep! They grow in zones 4-8. And I want to ammend my anser about diseases, they are disease free from what I read. They grow so easy! And the leaves are really, really pretty. I planted them for privacy from my 2 neighbors. My one neighbor commented that they are growing at a faster rate than his maple. lol At this rate they will catch up with his maple, that he planted 4 years ago, by next year. It's pretty funny. Saturday afternoon he asked me for the 3rd time what kind of trees they are, he keeps forgetting the name, so I went inside and wrote the full name of the tree down on a piece of notebook paper and brought it out to him. lol I don't know if he has plans to plant them or if someone else he knows does. Oh, and I bought the trees online from Forest Farm. I don't work for them or have anything to do with them, but I did have a very good experience ordering from them.