I suggest you re-post in the main forum in order to get some traffic on your question.

Your property looks well-loved and cared-for, as well as peaceful, except for your uninvited "guests". I'm in NJ, too - southern Monmouth County. I'm glad to see some of these recent posts, though. The dangers of the boulders (and lawsuits) are very real, and it is important to identify any easements the municipality, or any other entity, may have. Our property line is 10 feet from the paved road (no curbs or sidewalks). And with that straightaway, you probably get some pretty fast-moving cars at times, too. A sense of place is also an important point. Annie, from the photos, I'm thinking maybe you're in southern NJ? While some parts of our state are very rocky, a lot of others are flat and sandy and boulders just look contrived and out of place, IMHO, no matter how carefully one chooses and sets them. I tend to agree with deviant-deziner on the split rail fence. Once they age to a silver gray they blend very nicely with their surroundings, and you can soften the look with a mixed border of shrubs, small trees, perennials and bulbs if you like. Choose the right plantings and it will be fairly low-maintenance, provide year 'round interest, and habitat for wildlife (I'm thinking birds and beneficial insects ... do you have deer? Looks like prime real estate for them. If so, you'd need to choose plants they won't munch on.) Ah, the summer sport of mailbox batting. I'd never heard of that until we moved to the shore area and I thought it was a shore thing mostly perpetrated by ... um ... non-residents. Folks here have come up with a variety of bat-proof solutions: mailboxes enclosed in brick or stone columns, attached to I-beams, wrapped in heavy rope (the nautical theme can work here). You can get pretty creative.

Thank you Shawn and Suzi for the tips on Thuja Green Giants and how to get shrubbery cheap. I *have* considered arborvitae, which probably would go best with the current look of the house, and are fast-growing. bmh4796, I looked up English Laurel, and it's handsome and a fast grower, but aren't the leaves toxic? Maybe I could plant a line of arborvitae and then add some more colorful or interesting plants at their bases? Anyway, because I had them and didn't know what else to do with them, I put some 4 inch lilacs in the ground already, and a 2 day cold snap promptly blackened their leaves. Undaunted, I stuck a white Beauty of Moscow on the corner next to the twin trees, hopefully far enough behind the hydrant to not run into trouble. I don't know what I'm doing here... hope it doesn't look too weird. The more I consider, it seems like I need to come up with an overall plan for the house instead of just buying plants I like and poking them in here and there. I suppose the tiny lilacs will stay there until I find a sale on Thuja, or save up enough for a stone wall. I'm afraid that whole area is probably solid rock underneath. There are a couple of large (2 foot long) outcroppings of stone that look like they extend underground. Wish I could show you but I still can't find my camera!

I wouldn't mind having a better look at that wall before suggesting something with a lot of root mass, like daylilies or shrubs. There is not much lean on that wall and pressure from within is the last thing you want. I've been poking around my rock walls and garden lately and have noted how much root mass is tending to migrate to areas of consistent dampness. For example, I have a pot standing next to a plant that has a bulky root mass, and although the plant can grow best where there is light, the woody base has pushed itself under the pot. Quite intriguing. In your situation, this tendency is aggravated by the downhill slope, which is where water, and thus roots, will go. Therefore a plant that spreads by stolons would probably not grow uphill, but you may not want to risk it - so none of your Houttuynias or St. John's wort, for example. Something that mats, in contrast, could easily by mowed by the neighbour (or their mowing people). A couple of matting plants that I have had good success with are a spreading veronica (note to self and others: do NOT google "spreading veronica") and a matting dianthus with bright pink flowers. Not sure how they would handle full sun in your climate, but the moisture retention of the rock would help. I think the thymes would be OK too. Which way they spread would partly be determined by the sun - they would grow primarily toward it. I agree that the sedums are not as weed-suppressing as you might think. One that might be would be Sedum 'Angelique', and there are others. Sedum acre would probably also work - but as Yardvaark's description of how to root it suggests, it is rather easy to propagate and so your neighbour's mowing might get it all over her yard - so easy to miss a bit that falls. 'Angelique' will also root where it drops, but because it's bigger and not as fragile it is easier to control the bits. All ground covers need periodic haircuts to avoid getting leggy, woody, and sparse. KarinL