Thanks for your input. A picket fence definitely is not our style and would not blend well with the neighborhood. We will be putting a few skinny trees in at the uphill corner of the lot towards the street. They will be set back several feet so the line of sight isn't destroyed for our neighbors backing out of their driveway. Underplanted will be various drought-tolerant perennials. I'm not a huge fan of annuals. I'm not sure why I need to "frame the grass" with bricks? At some point we may put in a mowing strip of natural stones, but that is not a priority at this point. I'm considering putting in a dry stream bed leading to something of a rain garden to help deal with some of the water issues that we are currently experiencing and that I expect to compound with removal of the junipers.

Leucothoe likes acidic, moist soil; it doesn't sound to me the kind of thing for a free-draining gravel area, where plants such as lavender are growing (or have I misunderstood?) Junipers have the virtue of being drought-tolerant when established, and their foliage looks soft from a distance (though of course is prickly to touch). I would definitely second 'Blue Star' - it's a lovely plant, and it takes on a violet tinge in winter. There are plenty of mediterranean-type plants that would fit the bill, but I don't think any would be in hardy in your zone. Artemisia might work, such as 'Powis Castle' or 'Lambrook Silver'.

oakleafs grow at a decent clip, but i don't know how much the clay might slow them down. i planted mine in clay and it has tripled in size over about 5-7 yrs. was about 2' when i planted it- is about 6' all around now. i don't know what size the pot was, but it very well could have been 3 gallon. i haven't babied it at all- if you watered & or fertilized, the growth might be faster. nice flowers that persist. and remember, oafleafs are deciduous, so your screen will be bare come winter. i have a weeping yaupon in pretty heavy shade, and it's done well. i didn't plant it there, and in fact didn't know what it was for a long time. i think it must have been planted 20 yrs ago. there's a second one that's very stunted beside it. it's nice and dense and is about 10' tall. doesn't bloom or set as many berries in the sahde, but the form is still nice. althea(rose of sharon) can do ok in light shade and has the advantage of fast growth and nice blooms in a range of colors half the summer. disadvantage- it sets seeds. if you mulched well it might not be a problem. it's also deciduous. if you find someone who has them, they'd be happy to share, probably. i know i will if you want some. we had one that was about 15-20' in the backyard before fran came through. the remaining ones are about 12'. you might consider planting 2 or 3 types of plants in your space, just to vary it a bit, and so that if any one thing doesn't do well, the others can carry its weight. it tends to look a lot more natural, too. you can have your cake & eat it too if you have some evergreen & some deciduous back there. i would think for most things planting now would be just fine. good luck! tammy

I am a huge fan of desert willows, which are not in the willow family and are not desert plants either. They do need somewhat well-drained soil, but the first one, which I planted about a dozen years ago, has thrived in the worst red clay soil on our property so either this red clay drains better than I think, or the tree is tougher than they say. You can buy a plain old run-of-the-mill desert willow for about the same price as a chaste tree---maybe $15 to $25 in a 3 to 5 gallon container. I found my first one at a native plant nursery in Ft Worth back when they were not easy to find. Now I see them at places like Lowe's, Home Depot or Wal-Mart every spring. They go in and out of bloom all season and mine never have had a disease or pest issue. The second one we planted is in its third year and doing great. Plant breeders have developed some named cultivars that you can find online or in a good nursery if you want something other than the common one. Generally they have been bred for flowers in different shades or for a more compact size. Chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus) grows in more of a wide, spreading shape but also cycles in and out of bloom all summer. Mine is about 15 years old and hasn't given us any trouble at all (low-maintenance trees are the only ones I plant). It can fill up petty much any space you give it. Some people control its spread with heavy pruning, but I simply planted mine where it could spread to its heart's content. I pruned it a little in the early years before deciding to leave it alone and let it grow the way it was meant to grow. Both the tree and I have been happy ever since. The deciduous magnolias are beautiful small trees, especially the Sisters group bred at the National Arboretum. This line has mostly all female names, and the one we have is 'Jane'. It blooms really early here. It needs careful attention to its moisture needs in prolonged drought. Finally, because I have space to plant "trash trees" ( that have sentimental value), we've got one mimosa tree (which never has sprouted one single volunteer here despite its reputation for self-sowing) and one chinaberry tree. The mimosa stays in bloom all summer and butterflies and hummingbirds adore it. The chinaberry tree leafs out fairly late and blooms fairly late, filling a niche when little else is blooming. Mine has never produced a volunteer either, although the ones on the street where I grew up spread all over the whole neighborhood. Those are a few of my favorite no-maintenance trees. I also love the native persimmons that pop up all over our property. The flowers are not showy, but the trees have gorgeous autumn foliage in shades that range from golden-orange to orange-red. We had three persimmon groves in our neighborhood within a mile of us prior to 2011, but the drought killed the other two. I hauled water to ours in buckets to keep them alive but, when I look at their glowing foliage in autumn, it was worth every bucket of water I carried to them. There's tons of lovely small to medium-sized trees that are low-maintenance to no-maintenance. I'd plant more but I already am fighting to keep the woodland from taking over every square inch of our land. Dawn