Hi Alina, Congragulations on your new home. I feel the same way about a privacy fence. I think they are ugly in fact. I have the same problem you have, but I have chain link fences around my little rectangle yard, which means no privacy. I just ordered the Hydrangea quercifolina "Alice" today online. Hopefully it will max out at around 12 feet tall and 10 feet wide when mature. They are fast growers also. I am excited. On one long side I planted 4 Rose of Sharons real close to each other for a hedge effect, they grew about 2 feet last year, so I am looking forward to more growth this year also. I love the flowers on Rose of Sharons. On the other long side I planted 2 clumping bamboo plants that have not grown in height. They are slow growers til they are around 4 or 5 years old. They look tropical and stay green in the winter. I was thinking about a holly also. They will stay green all winter too and they are pretty. I saw one I liked at Home Depo but they wanted 80.00 for it and it was small. Hollies are not fast growers at all. It will take many years til it is of a screen size for me. Home depo has Emerald Green Arborvitaes that are about 4 feet tall for 25.00 each right now. I think I might buy one of them also, but they grow REALLY slow. They don't get wide, just tall, (good for small yards). Good luck with your selection. Why don't you buy both, you only live once. I am looking forward to the worry of pruning and trimming my bushes and trees rather than living without any screen at all, if you know what I mean.

A few pics from last week. The big Persea palustris which was basically undamaged in the past severe winters. The small thing in front of it (to the left of the Sabal*) is the Schima argentea that I'd already mentioned. It looks like it was about 1" caliper before the first cold winter killed it back - you can see the old trunk that was lopped off. What I'd never noticed is that along the wall was another Schima, that looks to have recovered even better last summer from the damage of the prior winters. Surprisingly, this was labeled as Schima wallichii, which I thought was considered more tender than S. argentea. But it looks better than the S. argentea, perhaps becaause of the wall protection. (this wall is to the north of all of the plants) Next a Mahonia 'Soft Caresse'; I can't figure out whether this one is the one that's been there or a while and was severely damaged in the cold winters, or replanted. It sure looked dead after the first cold winter, so I think it's a replanting. In any case, it's apparently Mahonia 'Delicious Caresse' to the lop-eared rats, because they've almost eaten all of the leaves off. Finally this species Camellia, C. yuhsienensis that I mentioned in another thread. This was the earliest camellia blooming after the first cold winter. Likewise, it was now still blooming well, even though we'd had some cold spells by last week. It wasn't the only camellia blooming in the gardens though, something that looked like Camellia 'Korean Fire' was blooming. Small flowers but I certainly would make place is my garden for such a cold resistant camellia. * - yes you will notice to the right of the Sabal minor is a Butia! I have no idea what they are thinking in planting that. It already looks mostly dead after this mild (so far) winter.

Renee,I meant to reply earlier that I love nandina, but never see it in nurseries at 5 feet. As for shade/sun, I see it is fine in light shade, as you have, but supposedly, will not color brightly there as it does in full sun( I quote "The Book). *I think* privets are okay in bright-ish light, but may not bloom well or have as dense foliage. Are your viburnums in sun? * always take with a big grain of salt!*

I didn't start out to grow so much, it just kind of happened. I was also a military wife and planted small gardens and flower beds in a lot of different climates as we moved from place to place. When we finally retired, I wanted a garden, but we lived in southern Oklahoma at the time and I had only red clay. Although I tried to improve it, I never got it the way I wanted it. When we moved to Grove, I cleared a corner of the back yard, which had once been a garden, but was then a lawn, and I planted a small garden. The soil was really good and it did well. The garden did so well, that I wanted it to be larger, then larger, then larger, until it now takes up the entire back yard. Some Springs we get a lot of rain, and in the beginning, I had such mud that I have had it pull my shoes off when I tried to walk in it. I sometimes had to rescue tomato plants that appeared to be swimming, by digging a trench to drain off the water. I live in a neighborhood with a lot of trees and many people burn their leaves. Some of them now know that they can just dump the leaves in my north yard. One guy has a huge lot and he just drives here on his lawn mower with his 4x4x4 grass catcher, and dumps them for me. He loves it because he doesn't have to burn them. I love it because he doesn't have to burn them. I not only hate the smoke, but they are great for my garden. I also buy mushroom compost by the pickup load, and I have chickens. Although I still get rain, I just don't have the mud problem that I once had. At first, I only grew what I thought we could eat fresh because that is what I had always done since I had small gardens and we moved so much. What I discovered was that there were so many great things to grow, that I wanted to grow them all. LOL I wanted the great taste of fresh produce, I wanted food that hadn't been sprayed with dangerous chemicals, and most of all I just wanted to learn how to grow as many things as I could. I think our economy stinks, and is going down hill each year, so I wanted to learn to be self-sufficient in the event I needed that skill. Although I plant mostly in the ground, I have 3 raised beds that I use for early crops. One now has asparagus so I can control the moisture level, and I normally plant salad crops in another so I'm not growing them in the Spring mud. This year the third bed is filled with the first onions I planted. I covered it with row cover as soon as I planted because we have a neighborhood cat that thinks any box is just for him. As far as costs go, I consider gardening a hobby, and a health benefit and a lot more exciting than a gym membership. As my gardening skills improved, my soil improved, and I practiced growing more things, I found myself with all of this food. I can't stand to see it wasted, so we freeze it, can it, and eat it. If I had more space, I would grow even more, because I like doing it. I could garden for less money than I spend, but I am no longer young and I have some health issues so I need to do things in the smartest way that I can. Like George, I buy Lee Valley tools. I have others as well, but it is the Lee Valley that I normally reach far. My daughter-in-law says that my shovel is so heavy, that you just hold it up and drop it instead of pushing it into the ground. LOL When I have big purchases to make, I just buy in quantity, but buy for several years. Once you have a hoop bender, then it is cheap to make all of the hoops that you need. One year, I bought 500 feet of row cover which I am still using. I can usually get several years use out of each piece. If it gets holes in it, it is still useful. It is good enough to use over the raised bed that the cat likes, or to lay over the tops of plants that are under a poly low tunnel if we get excessively cold weather, or even to wrap around the sides of a CRW tomato cage to keep sharp winds off small plants. One year I had pepper plants until after Thanksgiving by surrounding the bed with row cover and putting a piece of greenhouse plastic just over the top part of the plants. There was plenty of air flow, but it still provided protection from the harsh cold wind. I still have plenty of unused row cover to use for a few more years. Last year I bought greenhouse plastic that was 100 feet by 10 feet. It is perfect for use on low tunnels since conduit comes in ten foot lengths. With the conduit pushed into the ground, the ten foot poly works just great. I only needed about a third of that last year, and even that piece is still good enough to use again. I need to learn to grow more herbs. I am fine with basil, dill, cutting celery, parsley and things like that, but struggle with others. They may get too much moisture, but I'm working on building a new VERY raised bed to try again. If you saw the location of my garden, you would wonder how I can grow anything because I have trees and buildings all around. Oklahoma has such brutal summers that the shade seems to help, and the buildings seem to take winds mostly over my garden instead of whipping through at ground level, so I think that extends my Fall growing. Even in the same State, we have many different growing conditions and just like a flower that 'will bloom where it's planted', we have to take what we have available to us and make it work, and just 'bloom where we are planted'. Every year I learn more about my garden. Last year I lost a tree which made a difference, so I have to adjust for that. Everyone has waste, whether it is paper, cardboard, kitchen scraps, chicken pen cleanings, hay, etc. If you don't, your neighbors do. Just get creative and you can make your soil better for gardening. Spend money if you have it, and want to spend it on gardening, but even if you don't, you can still grow a few things and learn a lot....and most of all..have fun.