I would find a budget way to do a fence. You can almost certainly do it for what you're planning to spend on plants, and its advantages outweigh plants by a huge margin. A planter box would be no cheaper either. The plan of using plants has so many disadvantages that, until you'd said why you weren't considering a fence, there was just nothing to say about a way to do it well. A fence takes no space. Works for the purposes you intend. Has immediate effectiveness, and year-round effectiveness. Is no work to maintain. Can still have plants, which are easy to install after a fence is in, while a fence is harder to build once plants are in place. You can even do the fence in phases. Not that the plants won't be a phased approach too! But your fence can be effective while you phase it in. Seek out lumber in creative ways: craigslist free listings is a favourite. Cruise industrial alleys for pallets. But here's the thing: the bones of a fence need only be posts, and a few rails, which to start with could be just 1x2s or whatever you can locate. If you get the dog later, then you can invest in 2x4 rails and pickets, or panels. I think it would be a good investment to put in new posts; I don't think this would much exceed the cost of the plants you've proposed. Maybe a post hole digger would even be a good investment and affordable; I got one for only $70. If you ultimately want a tall fence, use tall posts (set the correct distance apart) - your fence can be short to start with. KarinL

Youch!!! That would fit with what I'm seeing... they stay small for the first couple of years, but this taller one has rocketed to 8 feet in just this spring!! Looks like I'll have to keep a leash on it, but it's nice having an oak in the yard. I keep hoping, of all the couple-dozen plants that have been sown by birds, that one or two would happen to be natives, but that doesn't seem to be happening. Thanks for the ID !

Mat, yeah I have 2018 and 2019 to write up. I have all my notes. Just have to find time. I checked out Pepiniere casse noisette website. They do not list their rootstocks anywhere that I can find. What rootstocks are your pears, peaches, apricots on? Honestly, a lot of what they are selling, at least in apricots, peach, nectarines seem to me to be VERY marginal for their climate. In many case they mention useful for growing in pots but if that is the case how are they propagating for sale? I don't want to disparage them without information but my impression is they might be reselling . You absolutely need to be buying based upon root-stock. For apples I am not only buying on Bud118 as it has best cold hardiness and is vigorus for our short seasons - Bud9 is just too slow. Train and prune to keep the size you want. Pears on OHxF87 or 97 and prune/train. I have found PAW-PAWs to be marginal in 4b - still 3' tall after 5+ years. Blueberries don't like my soil so Haskasps and Currants are much better. You have better options than Indigo Gem, Aurora is good though. Pink Lemonade is like a zone 5/6 plant, I see little chance of it surviving. Both Whiffletree and vigneschezsoi are good options. Be aware that a 1-2 year old bare root grape vine will bear fruit 1-2 years faster than the same year rooted cuttings you will get from vigneschezsoi. If you are only buying a couple might want to spend a couple extra $$ to get fruit a whole year or 2 earlier. Somerset and Trolhaugen are good. Had a couple Brianna this year, not enough to really say. Get Bluebell as well. I suggest 10-15' between vines. Can go closer but I am of the hack back 90% every year and then let grow. Trollhaugen can put out 12-15' of growth in 1 year alone - plant closer and you have to keep on top of canopy thinning to avoid overgrowth. Apples and pears will benefit from bagging with ziplocs. Grapes I bag with Organza bags when starting to turn color. So far I am loosing 99% of stone fruit (plums) to plum curlico and the rest to birds/racoons (can't bag plums - they rot). All peaches die. Trying apricots but no fruit yet. Don't get too caught up on types of fruit. Buy something disease resistant on a hardy, vigorus rootstock then topwork as you get enough branch structure. You will then be able to test fruit to see what you like or not within 3 years of grafting. My crabapple is now up to 65+ different apples grafted to it.

Primrose jasmine is not a vine, though I can understand how it might appear to be one. It's a shrub that sends out long arching stems, and it can get 8 ft high and 10 ft wide. It suckers and is often used to cover slopes.