I don't remember if I told you, but make a skimpy dashed line with the paint with the first walk through. Appraise the results and make corrections with a heavier dashed line. Appraise again and when you think it's right, go over it with a solid line. Depending how good you are about it, it can be fairly straightforward... or it can get messy. So take your time appraising it from many angles before making the corrections. If it gets really messy, a second, different paint color is useful. Once you get the line as you want it, mark it in some permanent way (cut with shovel?) as the paint will not last long. After a couple of weeks of weathering and mowings it may be so faded you can barely make it out. If you want the line reviewed, post a picture taken from a high elevation. I know you're making changes to the concept plan I showed you so I just want you to be thinking through the planting arrangements as you make the changes. Since you're doing this work yourself, I have the feeling you're going to become good at evaluating what you've done and the way things are fitting together... especially after you see a year's growth. Now that you're a transplant expert, you'll be able to make adjustments when you see some are needed. The hibiscus is more a shrub than "tree." It looks like something that should be within easy view of deck or pool area. Since you're new to so many plants and trying to save some $ by doing the work and putting this together over time, you might consider creating a temporary place where you plant various perennials that are under consideration...a regular perennial garden. You could collect plants with zero worry about what goes where, just stick them in. See how they do. Get to know them. You could place such a garden in any place that's not ready yet to be landscaped (so it's not in the way for a while.) As you evaluate plants, you can increase the stock of those you like. Some perennials multiply so rapidly that if you buy one, from it you can make all the others of that kind you need. If you do it, add 1/3 volume of peat moss to the planting soil so it is better to work in and better to grow things. Another thing I meant to mention, where you have like groups of plants (say River Birch) when it's all said and done you'll want these plants to match as though they came from the same family. It will not be pretty if one is a 5-trunk multi and another is a single trunker... and one branches as 8' above the ground, and another at 12 feet. They need to look like they're all from the same planet and got their hair cut at the same salon. What to do about it? This year, nothing. Just see what they do and try to make them as healthy and fast growing as possible. At the end of next winter, you'll want to do whatever pruning (before spring growth occurs) that's required to make them be matched. But never fear, even if it has to be severe, as long as they're healthy they'll bounce back and keep going.

I have a great leatherleaf viburnum that retains its leaves most of the winter, has spring flowers, and provides a good screen between my neighbor's yard and mine. It's about 12' tall and I don't think it will get much taller, at least not in my lifetime. Even a large shrub that loses its leaves in fall will give you great privacy when you need it, in summmer, and will obscure the view quite well in winter. Can you spare enough space to make a mixed border with several tall shrubs along that edge of your yard? It's hard to tell from your photo how wide the area is between the wall and the edge of the yard to the right, but I'd suggest rototillingg a swath along that side of the yard and planting whatever you like. The privacy will be taken care of without your having a wall or an oddly placed "specimen tree". Parts of the wooded border across the field look like they really contribute to your view, so leaving some gaps in height, as well as a partly obscured path (towards the right side) through the proposed border might work well for you. >... say "That is lovely landscaping... I really love that grouping of ... I agree with this completely, and I think the best way to get that is with a mixed bed. A single conifer in place of the red cartoon Christmas tree will look a little better than the cartoon, but an actual grouping of plants will look a whole lot better than that.

Ways to screen and add variety without getting too busy. Colors and shrubs styles are arbitrary.

Check Facebook market and craigslist etc. for materials and stuff! Free or cheap find can help with cost! If you can't afford a fence maybe just some cheaper landscaping or raised garden beds with some taller things like tomatoes, (squash will climb too) (from free materials!) Down your property line. Hopefully they'll take a hint and stop playing catch in your yard! At the very least record this, it's trespassing. Maybe the HOA can step in for you. It'd be different if you guys were friendly and they asked for permission. Also maybe those cloth sun screens could help? They aren't terribly expensive (I'm looking at some to block the creepy camera the neighbor installed to watch us, and they'd told us they are watching us. The kids see them watching through the windows! Now they have a camera too) but if you angle them right (low on the neighbors side, he'll who to say you can't put one of those vertically between some post? It's not a fence) between that and any plants you put in could help create near full privacy! You can find so many DIY projects on youtube and online now and days, if you are really struggling to keep this low budget try to do it yourself, and keep it simple, you can always build off of it. Also guess I'm lost on the plants allowed...but what if you installed like a wire climbing wall (wood frame) for plants...maybe you could build it higher too? The best cheap solution I have that is easily reversible for something more permanent is you could make a small garden along the property line, cherry tomatoes grow quick, some quite tall (I've grown some over 10ft high with wood post and chicken wire as a climbing wall) and offer pretty good coverage. Bonus is you can grown them from seeds so they're very cheap, and Tomatoes! Yum! Sunflowers would be a good choice too (especially down the property so they can't use it for catch). Wouldn't be year round but it'd help you most in the seasons they are out there the most. Maybe a "wall" of bird houses on post, grow some viney plants around and between them? Bonus you can face them towards the neighbors so the birds coming in and out will poop all over their yard and pool. Could you build a wall with wood frames and glass? Maybe in small sections broken up by hedges or some bushy plant? You can treat it so it let light in but blocks their view...that with a sun screen cover until you can build something more permanent might work. Last resort might be a shed or something, but that'll probably ruin your space. Hope some that helped, if not, seriously, check out youtube and pinterest etc, you'll find some ideas!