For those who might remember this question from last year, I thought I'd post an update. First, a photo of said fence shortly after it was constructed. Sorry, I didn't realize the photo would be quite so humongous. I will use restraint in the number of photos posted. Did I solve the problem? Uh, yes and no. By yes, I mean the fence doesn't feel like it's "in my face" anymore. One reason is because in getting to know the very nice neighbors better, they mentioned the fence is only to restrain their dogs, and once the plantings on their side fill in, (planted more than 2 years ago and growing rapidly) they plan to take the fence down. Yes, I did plant 7 Cyrtostachys renda along the fence. They were fairly good size, but it will be 3 to 4 years before they accomplish much in the way of screening. Another 10 much smaller C. renda have been added to the original 7, allowing for the desired undulating shape along the fence -- the first 7 are in a rather soldierly line. It will be 8-10 years before the bed fully achieves the intended look. (That's the "no" part of my answer.) Using an old magician's trick, I've opted for distraction by developing the "middle garden" in this area. The original 3 palms I planted have grown tremendously in one year, and we've planted a pool of grass around them. (Planted -- it's not growing yet.) Beyond the grass is the beginning of a curving red cinder path, an allee of Areca vestiaria. The path leads to a clearing at the rear of the lot where we hope to construct a simple open platform with a roof on it. We started referring to it as a "tea house", but you might call it a pavilion, or a gazebo, a yoga studio, a tiki cocktail hut, a meditation room, or beer garden, depending on how we make use of it from one day to the next. Getting back to the garden, I wanted to post 'before and after' pix, but that would be too many photos. Consider the above as a 'before' photo, even though that was AFTER the heavy equipment came in to remove the trash trees and the jungle tangle, leaving bare, broken lava which immediately sprouted rampant weeds. I don't have a moon gate yet, but I have a boulder -- together with the palms around a 10,000 gallon water tank to the left, they "frame" an entry to the middle garden. If you walk across the left side of the lawn -- which appears here as a smooth dirt area -- toward the first boulder on the left, you arrive at the Areca vestiaria path. In the end, screening the white fence has become "small stuff" and we're not going to sweat the small stuff. Sometimes the best solution is an attitude adjustment. As a complete amateur, visualizing, planning, and implementing a garden in phases on what for me is a huge scale has been an enormous challenge, but also very satisfying. We've done tons more work in the garden and on the house interior than shown here, and have tons more to go. It's a labor of love, and we take time off to play, too, so things are moving forward a little at a time. Most recent acquisition for the house: a couple of cheap but very comfortable chairs to rest our weary bones in when day is done.

how about an Arbutus Marina "Strawberry Tree" vs a Podacarpus? This is a little "wider" -- more of a tree than the Podocapus. Would be about 10ft from pool--- will that be a problem? How would the two look together--- I have two neighbor's windows to block--- I could put the thinner podo 10 ft from pool, and thicker Arbutus 15ft from edge--- Tropical theme, I still want some clumping bamboo further from the pool, know about the bamboo droppings. Thanks--- newbie, my first attempts at Latin.

Ron that is sooo amazing. It brings me such joy to look at it. I was wondering if its possible to use that as my screen saver. I wouldn't know where to start even if you let me. Anyway, I am just a beginner to roses but know it will be my forever hobby. I have so much to learn. Thanks for sharing your beautiful bouquet. Diana

Re: Blue Screen (of death) and HP printers. I have an HP Photosmart 3210 XI All-In-One and it has a glitch with one application. It works with everything else I have. An updated driver did not help, and my queriers were ignored by both HP and MicroSoft. I have discovered a work-a-around. The Problem: Windows XP Office 2000 - buried within Office 2000 is a scaled down version of MicroSoft Photo Editor. The features that it has works very well. If I bring an image into the photo editor and attempt to print it, XP complains of an illegal operation and shuts down the photo editor. The Work-a-Around: After the computer has booted and before attempting to print an image from the photo editor, re-install the printer, or install it as another printer and delete the original install. This can be before starting the photo editor or after an image has been loaded into it. To install: Go to the "control Panel", click, or double click depending on how your computer is set up, on hte "add printer" icon. Follow the instructions in the connection wizard making sure that you choose the port that your printer is connected to. After "finish" of the install, a new printer icon will appear in the printers windows and the newly installed printer will have a check mark indicating it s the default printer. Right click on the old printer icon and delete it. (You probably don't need to uninstall the unused printer connection. I do it to conserve resources.) Close the windows and you are ready to print until the computer is rebooted again. As a bonus, the intall-printer untiltiy will remember all your replies except for the connection port making it short work to reinstall the next time. Strangely enough, this is the only application I have that exhibits this problem. All others work fine including an ancient version of NetScape.