Shrubs like pittosporum and privet get much wider than 2 feet and "pruning" would then be shearing on top and sides over a large area--a big job unless you just love it. Agree with the trellis or open-block type of wall tends to provide the most space-saving privacy along with neatness and even elegance. If you do some book-browsing and surfing for small space gardens, narrow space gardens, side yard gardens, etc you will find a lot of different approaches by people trying to do just the same thing--achieve privacy in the narrowest dimension possible--and could get a feel for what "look" you'd like. Also think in terms of combinations--I've seen some "walls" constructed of separated panels with some plantings in between, rather than a solid panel of wall. Or a partial L-shaped wall (I'm using the term wall to refer to some kind of built structure of lattice, open trellis, or other material)anchoring a corner, with more informal plantings extending the arms. And further, if you go so far as to custom-build, I've seen cool "walls" in which the length of the wall formed a pattern combining solid parts and small open parts so that a passerby might get a glimpse, and the occupants glimpse out, but provides substantial shielding. All that depends on the kind of traffic and privacy involved. A third concept is to know more about what you want to do with the space inside and whether you can incorporate your "hedge" idea or lattice idea into what is to be the garden itself. For example, do you plan to have all of the "interior" space bare, as for table/chairs, or did you plan to have a "garden" of many other types of plants/shrubs "inside" the walls? Because it might be possible for you to consider part of your "wall" of planting to be, in effect, part of the garden you experience from within, and therefore could devote more than a couple of feet to it and more variety. So that area might have some tall, dense and relatively narrow shrubs to provide the privacy, in essence the outer "wall," and then step down "inside" to more intimate and varied plantings, flowers and so forth that you experience when you are within this garden area; or, you might be able to "afford" the space for a larger shrub that earns its keep with flowers, fragrance; Again, perhaps there's not space to do this for the entire "wall" length needed, but might anchor a corner or something and provide variation. So one thing to think about is maybe to sketch out what you'd like to happen in the entire space and in what exact parts (center, corners, where do you enter, is it connected to the house, will there be paving material underfoot, furniture), and this will tell you something about what you have to work with. This could be started off with the very simple "bubble diagram" doodles to get you thinking. That approach could be an alternative just walling the area in first and then going, now what am I going to do with the space I've isolated? Though of course you might end up deciding that an actual very narrow "wall" structure is just what you need.

Thanks Karen & BorS! Rouge, you're very welcome & I'd like to share some of these ideas with you. Did you see the post where flowerfan/Karen grows the clem up a fence in the sun, then guides it onto a large tree? She says the clem would die from lack of sun & lack of moisture if planted near the tree's root. Leslie197 plants the clem 3 ft away and wires small trellises together to form a "ramp" to the shrub or tree. Then she simultaneously hides the rigging & shades the roots with hostas & the like. Rouge, if you have any interest, click on "Clematis in tree" link above & see flowerfan2 on Mon, Jun 18, 07 at 0:30 & leslie197 on Wed, Jun 20, 07 at 23:36. I'm thinking of where to plant my baby clems someday & I'm fascinated by all this. Best wishes.

greenhouser, I have two suggestions to add to what's been said. One is that the kind of tomato makes a HUGE difference. If you plant meatier "paste" varieties, you'll get a thicker sauce a lot sooner. (You gotta balance that out with the flavour you like, of course!) The other is a trick I learned from an old issue of Organic Gardening magazine, and that I find works for me. I put the tomatoes in a pot, skins and all, and cook them briefly, maybe 15 minutes, till they soften and exude a lot of juice but are still cohesive tomato blobs. At this stage I scoop out a lot of the tomato juice using a ladle. (I put it into a different pot and can it separately for drinking and using to make gazpacho!) Once I've scooped out as much as I can, I put the tomatoes through a food mill to puree them and remove the skins and seeds. I find that they go through much more easily once they have been cooked a bit, and this way I get a thicker sauce sooner. (I usually can remove about 2 or 3 pints of juice from an 8- or 9-pint cannerload batch, which I figure means my sauce is 25 to 30% or so thicker when I staart cooking it down than it otherwise would be.) Don't know if this helps, but it's worked for me. Oh, one more thing. Because I grow a lot of kinds of tomatoes, and also sometimes have more patience than others, I end up canning sauces of different thicknesses, an I find that works fine since I use them for different purposes. Sometimes I label them ("extra thick" or "quite runny" or whatever) but mostly I just pick 'em up and gauge what's inside when I am looking to use some. For soup or stew, a runny one is fine. For pizza, I look for a nice, thick one. (This doesn't really help with what you actually asked, I realize. Some people want their sauce to always be really thick. But it helps for me!) Good luck, Zabby

Okay I tried the Redken and didn't notice a difference as I always use the super star. How much do you use regularly? Perhaps I didn't use enough. Between the two the super star won. I'm going to try a larger amount tomorrow. Doing a few comparisons. I also use a root lifter spray for those who like a fuller lift. There are several on the market.