According to the Sunset Western Garden Book, creeping fig is very agressive and can be a problem--best to pull it off every few years so you can still use the garage--also not recommended for south-facing walls (page 351 of 2001 edition)--might not be the best choice. It's very delicate and beautiful when young but gets heavier and coarser over time. I've got Boston Ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) on my concrete walls. It's the plant that gave the name to the "Ivy League" colleges. It loses its leaves for a few weeks in winter (leaves turn red first--brilliant color). You would only need 1 plant. I pull it all off every 2 or 3 years to the ground (it comes off with a gentle tug) and it all grows back quickly. It gets very lush and looks good. Real ivy (genus Hedera) can be a pest--it spreads all over and rats like to nest in it. If you want a small, fairly clean tree what about dwarf Citrus? Evergreen, good screen, and the smell of citrus blossoms is just heavenly. Plus the fruit. 12-15' size you are looking more at a medium shrub rather than a tree. Most things sold as trees will get much much taller and at 1' away from the fence you don't have much room. Look also at Prunus caroliniana 'Brite and Tite', Nandina...I think this forum's FAQ has a list of 'narrow screen' plants you might want to check out.

Sunlight Gardens, a mail-order nursery with a very good selection of regional natives, especially recommends the Dutchman's Pipe or Pipevine (Aristolochia macrophylla) for "screening" uses in a shady location. This vine will grow in sun or shade although probably not really deep shade. Not evergreen; however, the large, 6 to 12 inch, heart-shaped leaves, will effectively cover a fence or trellis during the growing season. The plant is named for the shape of the flowers. More description: "Dutchmans Pipe is a common vine in moist southern Appalachian hardwood forests in coves and along stream banks easily twining 20 to 30 feet high. It has been popular as a porch screen for ages because it is fast growing, has large heart shaped leaves, and has odd little flowers. The two inch pale brownish purple flowers are pipe shaped or s-shaped with a widely flaring triangular "mouth" perfect for catching careless flies. The curious looking early summer flowers are borne sparsely among the wide leaves. Try it on a trellis for screening or let it ramble among shrubs and trees. It likes good moist soil and can take either shade or sun." For even more information, see http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=J410 "Will quickly provide dense cover for sun porches, verandas, pillars, posts, trellises, arbors, fences or walls. Has been used for many years to screen front porches, and is capable of creating a deep shade." And, as a further benefit, pipevine (Aristolochia) is the main host plant for the caterpillar of the beautiful pipevine swallowtail butterfly, described here. (So if you do plant this vine, and then eventually a weird looking black caterpillar with orange spikes all over its body shows up, please take good care of your "babies" and don't spray them!) http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/pipevine_swallowtail.htm Here is a link that might be useful: Dutchman's Pipe Vine available - Sunlight Gardens

(wow i just noticed my horrendous grammar in the title. so sorry about that!) I love wisteria and will be planting 2 over a large pergola in the backyard. In fact, it will be visible from the street and should serve as something of a backdrop with the wall in the foreground. So I wanted something else on the wall :) Here's a picture of the wall coming from the other direction. The dark brown pergola looks like a shadow in this picture, but I promise it's much more apparent in real life.

I'm not familiar with that particular one, but I can tell you that I have blooms I didn't expect on a MG that grew "accidentally". I started some MG seeds indoors and this seed hadn't sprouted, so I reused the potting soil in a planter on my deck, only to find a baby MG growing there a month later! This particular planter gets almost no direct sunlight -- it's west of my garage (so no morning sun) and directly under a mature oak tree. I don't think it even gets "dappled" sunlight during the day -- we have trouble growing grass under this tree because of the dense shade. The only sun that it may get is LATE evening, just before sunset when the sun is low enough to angle underneath the canopy of the oak. As you can see, the hot-pinkish blooms are beautiful! I really didn't expect to see any blooms at all for a lot of reasons: 1), not enough sunlight, 2) too much fertilizer, and 3) too much water (I have torenia planted in the planter, and kept watering/feeding the torenia as that was my reason for having the planter in the first place) But I allowed the MG to stay in the planter anyway, figuring that if it didn't flower I wasn't out anything, and if I did get a few stray blooms, then it was just a bonus. Now that I know that MGs WILL bloom here, I'll be planting them on purpose next year!