Ah Queensland, beautiful one day, then in move new neighbours and it's completely buggered!

How about one (or lots in your case) of the syzygiums or acmenas. Make good thick screens. Fast growing leucaenas or paulownias might also be the go. Or a trellis and grow lots of tall beans, cucumbers, pumpkins, passionfruit maybe. Potato vine grows fast. Any help?

Anything would ne better than a cactus, I guess ....?

Yes bad neighbours are a real problem , Sometimes there is no real solution to this problem but a sense of humour, a casual attitude , and a bad case of deafness.

bye from garden_worm

well, we don't actually hear them (except occasionally at night..if you know what I mean!!)
But the real problem is that, because of the way the blocks are and the houses were built, the back of his high-set house (it was built length-way down his block, the miniumum requirement - 2 metres - from the fence)overlooks my front yard. His entire house is in front of our house, you see.
(a) I really don't want to see into anyone's house, let alone his
(b) it's an ugly house
We already have a red and a white calliandra, dwarf crepe myrtle, a ornamental pomegrante (spelling?) and a baby Little Gem magnolia.
but this guy is whingeing about the leaves which drop off over on his side.
Give you a clue as to this guy's personality...he took down part of our mutual fence to do something to his side - forget what - and didn't tell us.
Now, we have a little dog (which we've had for 14 years) and suddenly she kept getting out and we didn't know why or how...this bit of the fence was in behind the shrubs, you see. We didn't see it gone but she sure did.
Simple courtesy should have told him to, at least, mention the fact that he was going to take it down, wouldn't you think?

Has he still not replaced that? Ask him to fix it - problem solved! lol.

Buy him a straw broom for Christmas, and teach him about composting. I don't think you're ever going to find a plant that never drops a single leaf. He's clearly living in la-la land if he thinks he can have the neighbours beautify his outlook as you obviously do, and never have to pick up a single leaf.

Many of the melaleucas will grow quite tall very quickly, and obviously the acacias also. At least you can start with these, then interplant between them with something which will contrast with the yellow/white flowers.

Annie there is only one way to go here in Beautiful Queensland. BAMBOO is the answer I have eight Bambusa oldhamii across my back fence to block off double story house and all the neighours grandkids that use to throw all their rubbish and toys over the fence.

They are the clumping ones and certainly do the job and if you work your soil over first and enrich it I reckon they would grow really quick. I planted mine in the clay that came from the stump holes of the house like everything went down the back fence kind of thing so they took a while to kick on but now three years on you can hardly see the house as the bamboo have got taller and a lot thick. I planted them about 4ft from the fence, sure they do drop a few leaves late winter or spring but nothing like trees do and its good mulch for them. Hope this helps....Cheers..MM.

SOme people can get so anal about leaves.
I owuld tell him to get a life or a leaf blower perhaps.
I bet he whinges about the posty who probably can't reach his poncy heritage letter box as well .Some people just don't know how to be neighbors.
I who still has two properties and four sets of amazingly nice and easy to get along with neighbors.I hope I don't sound like I am bragging.Scored lucky again when the newest of the neighbors moved in next door and came and apologised about the removalist being all over the street and also for the noise they were making.I only hope when I get round to renting the suburban house out ,my tenants are as nice to my neighbors.

Annie, your problem only makes us stay where we are and can only see the neighbours [who are wonderful people] in the distance.
We were talking about, maybe, having to move to town when we age a bit more, and not looking forward to it at all.
Marion

Well, I shouldn't whinge too much I guess. Everyone else in our cul-de-sac are nice so I guess one out of five really isn't too bad.
Sorry to dump on everyone here...guess I was just a bit tired.
sorry everyone.

I have the perfect solution. A beautiful row of glorious Jacarandas!

If you have the space - syzygium?(usually spell that wrongly) jambos will do the job. It keeps its branches down to the ground almost and is a great screening tree and relatively fast growing. Before you plant a bamboo go to the botanical gardens and see how wide the clump grows before you decide on a variety. Good luck.

Jacarandas?!?!?!
While I love that idea, I feel that two ordinary suburban blocks (as represented by me and my neighbour) may not EXACTLY be the right place for a row of jackies.:)))))

No, but it would certainly drive your neighbour crazy twice a year - once when the flowers drop and again when the leaves drop!

oh, Raymondo, that's evil!! I like it!!

I like the bamboo idea. He will have a fit when he sees you planting it, so long as you "forget" to mention its not the running type. My father-in-law who lives next door had a similar reaction when my husband announced in his wicked way that he was planting sacred bamboo (Nandina)at our fenceline. His father doesn't know much about plants so it was funny to see his reaction.
Seriously though, if you can grow them up your way I agree with the acmena suggestion. The more you keep it clipped the thicker it gets, and you can't see through it at all. they grow fast and make the perfect screen to about 5 metres, if you let it get that tall.