How about some of the columnar, compact hollies, like 'Oakleaf'? Is that one available out there? I have put some in for a similar purpose and I want to get some more! Beautiful dark green all winter. They grow relatively narrow for a holly and they don't get real, real tall, I don't think. They're not really known for berry production though. There's a similar one called 'Oakland'. Also, Fosters holly would work.

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.

I've been growing Camelia sinensis, 'tea plant' in Atlanta(7b) for 4 years. They've made it through the winter unprotected. They are slow growing but would make a beautiful hedge. I've seen rabbiteye blueberries trimmed as a loose hedge. They are mostly deciduous, but somewhat hold on to their leaves, slow growing, and the birds will always win. I don't know anything about 'goumi berries', but they are related to the eleagnus species that is grown along the interstate. I don't know if they are invasive or not. I would check. maybe hazlenut, it is deciduous but it might make a cool tree hedge. Or a Belgian fence, a type of apple tree espalier. Since I'm 'off the tracks' you could also do a low double wire muscadine fence - deciduous, but a green wall all summer. Apples are hard, but muscadine and blueberries are bomb proof. Needless to say, I wish I had a long length of sun.

The right and left halves of the main house are not the same conditions and require either different shrubs, or, it's possible to use the same type but trim to different heights. (It is the top of all these shrubs that will be trimmed at a uniform height relative to the window bottoms.) I don't think we're to the point of calling for the right-hand shrubs to be removed, as we haven't seen good, face-on pictures of them with the windows in the background. I'm pretty confident that all the other shrubs should be removed based on their size and position. "... the bottom of the window trim is about 4 feet above ground on the left side, so max plant height should be just below that?" That would be my goal. If new shrubs are treated well -- never going dry, but not being constantly we either, and given some fertilizer, they usually can get up to decent size within a couple of years. They only need to be 3 1/2' high. ",,, should i push the HOA on some solution to cover the electrical box in front corner?" You have to be careful what you wish for. Sometimes the "cover" is more offensive than the box being covered, as the overall "object" can grow exponentially in size. I don't think it's necessary to cover the entire box per se. If there was a judiciously planted, arching foliage grass or two that covered mainly the bottom half, that would take care of the main offense. For the top half, I don't know how much you'd be willing to apply paint, but if in my yard, I'd be considering a neutral/camouflaged/non-offensive color ... and asking permission after the fact. But then, I would never live in HOA place so you'd likely be up against forces I couldn't anticipate or predict. I think you have the wrong idea about how to treat the holly tree. It is not the top of the tree that gets trimmed to keep it in check. It is the bottom of the canopy that gets limbed up so as to get out of the way of all ground activities, and so as to not "smother" the lower portion of the house. It is VASTLY easier to maintain this as a small tree than it is to maintain it as a giant shrub. The trunk(s) are retained while all the side branching is removed. One is visually safe to de-limb up to 50% of the total plant height (which would now be to the top of your garage windows. Next year, it will be a little more.) I'm sure you've noticed that whenever a plant has a lot of foliage removed, it turns around quickly and grows a bunch more somewhere else. Here, that somewhere else would be at what remains of the upper portion of the tree, especially the top. Consequently, after you remove limbs & branches to 50% of the height and the tree grows taller, it will automatically create a new ratio that has it appearing as though you only removed limbs & branches to 40% of the tree's total height. Keep it's back side trimmed about 12" away from the wall, which will never be noticed from the front. I'm sure this holly tree is planted too close to the house (as is the case wherever a builder installs a landscape.) You have the choice to accept its placement as long as you can, or get rid of it and start over with another tree better positioned. If you decide on the latter, it may be possible to start a new tree while the old one stands and then cut it down a bit later.