Box is not the same as privet. Buxus sempervirens (box) is a lower growing small leaved evergreen. It CAN grow to 8 feet - after about 50 years and if unpruned. Privet (Various Ligustrums) is deciduous in colder areas and has larger oval leaves. It is a very greedy feeder and will deplete the soil making it difficult if you want to have any kind of flower bed in front of it. There are lots of plants suitable for hedging without resorting to privet. And since you only want to fill a 15 ft length you would not need many plants. Viburnum tinus, Hibiscus syriacus, hollies, beech, hornbeam, yew, Escallonia, various roses, some of the Berberis, bay (if it's hardy for you) and many different conifers can all be grown as a hedge. But would you consider just going for a mixed shrub border rather than a hedge? It would be less formal but you could have a selection of evergreen and deciduous and go for shape, foliage, flowers, fragrance, berries etc as you wish. In front you could put in some perennials and bulbs. Stick in some bird feeders for the winter. The neighbours would be screened and you would be adding an attractive and interesting area to your garden which you could enjoy from your patio. It would not need the regular clipping that a hedge would require. The neighbours could enjoy it from their side and you wouldn't have to go round to their property for maintenance.

I would like to suggest that you quickly fire or otherwise cancel the guy who is going to remove the wall. Then STOP, as Mad Gallica suggests! Then there are just a couple of things to do while you wait for spring. First is to measure your lot and draw up a plot plan that you can use for testing designs. This isn't hard to do, if you have a measuring tape, a straight edged ruler, and some graph paper (use 4 squares to the inch, it works best). Basically you'd want to include all the existing trees and structures, the location of the driveway & walks, utilities and the septic system components. Make copies of the base plan and then get some colored pencils and try different arrangements for "blocking" masses of plants. This will really help you to figure out where you really need borders, how wide you want them to be, and how tall the plants should be. Selecting the plants should come much later in the process. At the same time, go get a copy of one or more of Gordon Hayward's books; The Welcoming Garden is a good one. It describes how to get from square one (where you are) to having a house in a garden. It's got lots of useful techniques for deciding things like placement and depth of borders, selecting a style you'll be happy with, and how to make your design complement the locale. These little "passtimes" might get you interested in gardening to an extent you can't even imagine at this point. If that happens, we'll be here - egging you on. And by the way, welcome to the forum! Nice to see someone who has a blank slate - so many possibilities ahead of you.

nice property! i have extensive experience in screening out nosy neighbors.... Norway Spruce (picea abies). Planed 12ft apart in sawtooth pattern. Juniperus Virginiana Burkii. planted 8ft apart in soldier row or sawtooth. Autumn Blaze Maple - 20ft apart. Pin Oak (or one of the Oak varieties that holds its leaves all winter) - 20ft apart. White Pine - 25ft apart. Put the conifers in groups in the sight line of the neighbor houses, put the deciduous in between. Avoid: Blue Spruce (Picea Pungens) - grows too slow, can't handle midwest humidity, will lose all its lower branches after 15 years. Many Pine species don't do well in midwest either. suffer tip blight, etc. look around your place to see which ones do well. Silver Maple - while it grows super fast it's a trash tree that you'll be sorry you planted after 15 years.

I've been writing a lot about shade recently. Mature trees, especially large-leaved trees give full shade. The quickest, most successful means of achieving privacy is a fence or trellis work. Leyland cypress requires full sun so it's no wonder yours are not growing. This tree doesn't grow fast the first year; it's after their roots get established that you will see fast growth. Move them where they get sun and have at least 25 ft between each tree. They will eventually grow together, but planting too close when young causes limb dieback from shading which raises the canopy and destroys their ability to screen. The following shrubs will all take full shade. You should check with a local nursery to find out which will do well in your soil conditions. Some of these have dwarf varieties which can still be large but may work better for your situation. Five-leaf aralia (Acanthopanax sieboldianus) is a deciduous shrub that grows to 10 foot tall and wide in full shade to full sun. It is hardy in zones 4-8. Japanese aralia (Fatsia japonica) needs full to medium shade. It grows up to 10 ft tall but is only hardy down to zone 8. Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) grows anywhere from 6 to 15 ft tall and wide and is hardy in zones 5-9. Drooping leucothoe (Leucothoe fontanesiana) is a broadleaf evergreen growing to 6 ft tall and wide with arching branches. It is hardy in zones 4-8. Japanese kerria (Kerria japonica) grows up to 8 ft tall and 10 wide and is hardy in zones 4-9. Heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica) is an upright plant to 8 ft. and is hardy in zones 6-9.