You probably need to give more information before getting suggestions back. I'm finding it difficult to picture where things are - could you post a picture, especially one taken from an upper floor window to give the general layout? Also, what kind are your established trees? How shady is the area you are looking at? Your layout and the kinds of trees will influence what new plants can be grown there, since often root competition from trees can be quite severe. For others reading this, and for you before you remove your azaleas, in areas with established trees, rejuvenation pruning for many kinds of shrubs and hedge plants may be more effective than trying to establish new shrubs in an area with much root competition. You can do a search both of this forum and on Google for narrow, columnar, or fastigiate shrubs to get suggestions for plants that grow in the shape you want. Likewise, search for evergreen hedge plants. I can't suggest specific shrubs for you since my zone is so different from yours, but in addition to shrubs, consider vines grown on some kind of a trellis or lattice or even large gauge wire fencing fastened to the split rail fence. Around here clematis or some of the non-invasive honeysuckles can grow quite thickly even though they are deciduous, and the trellis itself can provide some screening. Climbing roses (not really a vine, but can be trained to a trellis or your fence) might also suit your purposes, though when the leaves are gone they are not good screens, so you'd need to plan the trellis to provide the screening or use it in conjunction with evergreen plants. Clumping bamboos (not running bamboos) and tall grasses can also provide screening in a relatively narrow format, though the grass would need to be cut to the ground in early spring and leave you without screening for a few weeks while it regrew.

When we were building, we had to abide by our neighborhood covenants using either wrought iron or wood (pasture style 4 board). They let us substitute alumninum for wrought iron (less maintenance). I had to have a cottage fence because of the deer and they go under and over the 4 board style. We got the Jerith aluminum (ours is bronze). It doesn't have the cottage charm of a picket fence, but it works well with our house style. Lifetime warranty and we're very happy with the way it turned out. No maintenance. Our style is '401' and retails for $135 for a 6 foot section that is 4 ft high. I think the in-line posts run around $50 each, but we have stone corner posts that were built by a landscaper (and match the ones in our neighborhood). Our gate was around $400+. Cameron

Good luck in the search, in the end I just did it myself. Installation usually equalled the price of the materials.

If your yard is large, do a diagonal fence the 10’ away (be sure to call to confirm). They can access from neighbors yard. we have a box much nearer to the fence. Previous owner put it there. I think if you put it too close and they need to access it by the easement guidelines they can take out your fence for access but not sure how often that actually happens