Ok Michael, I will chime in now. After much thought, my first choice would be a hedge of feijoa (pineapple guava). They are hardy, evergreen, low maintenance plants that can be grown in hedge form and still maintain compact growth. I have a couple and I plan on buying more this spring for privacy hedges. Keep in mind that there are two kinds of feijoas. There is an ornamental type that has small fruits that don't taste very good. Then there is the large fruited variety that has a better taste. Just Fruits and Exotics has the large fruiting kind. Those are very rare. The feijoa also has beautiful flowers. Hopefully you get enough sun to produce some flowers. My other thoughts would be to use herb bushes as already mentioned: rosemary and bay (the cooking variety). I have a friend who put in a mass planting of pineapples in front of his house in a filtered sun area, but you would have to be in zone 9b to do that. Blueberry bushes probably would not work well because the pH around houses is usually on the alkaline side because of lime leaching from the cement foundation. Because you need the plants to below window level, your choices are more limited. Best of luck. Let us know what you decided to plant. Christine

Thanks everyone for the feedback!! I bit the bullet and just finished planting 3 Leyland Cypress. I know it will be a chore to keep them in check if I do hedge them and I have the enough garden space to allow the growth. Actually, I think this is the first time I have planted something this large. They will add some dimension to the garden which is a plus. I do have one more question: When I took them out of the pots and removed the ties and burlap, they were in heavy clay type soil and not a lot of roots. They were in 3.5 gallon containers. The growth is about 3 feet high and wide. I loosened and removed some to most of the soil. Is this normal to have so little roots?

I have little to no personal experience with growing or eating most of these, but here are some plants to look at: Arbutus unedo. 'Compacta' gets to about 6' but the straight species is taller. Edible(?) fruit. Mahonia spp While the most common garden type I've seen is low-growing, there are others, perhaps less commonly found in commerce, that grow much taller. Edible fruit Clumping bamboo - Bamboos come in a range of sizes and hardiness, so you can most likely find one that works, but be sure to look only at clumping, not running bamboos which are difficult to contain. Edible shoots Many common needled evergreens can be used to make teas: spruce/Picea, hemlock/Tsuga, fir/Abies, and pine/Pinus. They are nutrient rich and so make sense as a survival food, but I honestly can't say that I've felt any inclination to try them. You might want to add information on where you are since 7b in the southeast US is quite different than 7b in the southwest US. For example, the taller Mahonia I've seen were growing in Utah, and I know that at one point at least one was offered by a New Mexico nursery, but I don't know if it would be happy in the SE US. Other growing info would be useful as well; is this for sun or shade or part sun? Are you willing to prune on a regular basis? Do you want evergreen for privacy or the winter green color? If for privacy, there are some densely twiggy deciduous large shrubs/small trees that might work for you such as hazel (edible nuts if you can beat the rodents to them) though they will need pruning.

Hello, so I think I may be asking for a lot here. I'm looking for a 6+ feet tall edible, evergreen hedge for zone 7. By edible, I don't necessarily mean fruits. Just any parts, leaves for tea, needles, fruit, etc. Most things that I am finding are zone 8+ or not tall enough. I was looking at Camellia sasanqua. However, they sound like they take an extremely long time to get to an appropriate height. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. xposted from Landscape designs. I'm not sure the best place to post this. Sorry for reposts. This is my first time posting on this site, and I'm still learning my way around.