Thanks, everybody! Sorry to put this in the wrong forum, I just couldn't figure out where to put it, and I thought some other people with inviting gardens may have also had trouble keeping people out of them. The garden that came with the house is really striking, and people who drive past often slow down to look at it or ask me about it. There's 70-something raised beds that are covered in patterns of tiles. It's a VERY conspicuous house. So I'm actually a little surprised that tweakers are targeting it, instead of somewhere less conspicuous. So, I just bought a gigantic "NO TRESPASSING - violators will be prosecuted" sign today. It's ugly, but I guess I need it. And a solar-powered motion light, which I'll install tomorrow. I also found a crack pipe in my backyard today. :( It was hidden underneath a pile of weeds I'd pulled a few days ago and left on one of my garden paths, so someone has definitely been in my yard in the last few days. RE: tweakers (yeah, I mean meth)...There's a big meth problem in this town, and there isn't a single neighborhood that's immune to it. When I bought the house there was no evidence of parties inside, though - in fact it was completely pristine inside every time I looked at it. And I never saw any trash around the house before I bought it, but now the sidewalk on one side has become a dump yard and shopping cart parking lot. :( RE: getting to know the neighbors...I'm on a corner, and my next door neighbors are a little sketchy, unfortunately. Very unapproachable. Come to think of it, so are the elderly couple across the street, and most of the neighbors in general. At least one person has been looking after my house while I'm at work, though, because someone yelled at my brother-in-law when he dropped off a compost bin in my yard, demanding to know what he was doing there. RE: surveillance cameras. I've thought about getting one but wouldn't know how to hard-wire it. Is this something the police might help with??? I'm not sure I'd want anyone to KNOW I had a surveillance camera, though, because I'm afraid my sketchy next door neighbors are either selling drugs or growing marijuana and I don't want them to think I'm trying to get them busted. Because if they were busted, they'd just end up right back in the house, with a grudge (the family has owned that house since the '50s, so they're not going anywhere). I don't want to start any sort of war with the neighbors. Does anyone know if you legally have to post a sign when you have a surveillance camera? Thanks!

treebarb, I've been in love with Abies concolor for decades; have never owned one. I'll go peek at Lowe's. We haven't made a decision yet, family stuff in Florida happened and we just returned home. Do you think the shallow roots would be a problem? We don't want it falling over in the wind and hitting the house (but of course on a 3-foot Lowe's tree we'd not have to worry about that for a while)! The neighbor's trees are not any wind protection. One is at the very front of her house and the other smaller juniper is between our houses. The prevailing winds are straight up the slope much of the time, so whoever's out back is going to have to withstand 50+ up to highest measured at 76 mph. Doesn't happen all the time, of course, but I'd say 20% of the year at least. I just looked up Bosnian pine: "tolerant of severe wind exposure". I like its looks online, and it sounds like the ticket to me. Thanks for your helpfulness. I very much appreciate it.

Marcj117 is there anything at all that you like about the rocks? Do you know what is underneath the rocks? I want to encourage you to at least remove some near the front of your house, but it will be time consuming and tedious. It took me around three days to move rock from one side of the yard to the other side of the yard (luckily it is not my yard). It was a small amount of rocks. Around twenty years ago my neighbor decided to have a river rock yard with just a small area of grass. She also had a wonderful Cedar tree close to my property line. It all looked hideous so I won't go on about that. I wasn't watching the calendar so I do not know how many months passed before the weeds arrived. They just sprout above the plastic. She was long gone by then. The house has changed owners a few times since then. My current neighbor does not weed weekly. About every three months she and her family clean the area. It is not the weeds that are so messy, it is needles from the tree. The needles get stuck in the gaps between rocks. On my side under the tree there is an area too shady for most plants to grow. I keep it as an unplanted area. I rarely get weeds because I leave the needles on the ground. I am very grateful for the free mulch.

We did the same thing out back using gravel with coarse sand underneath. A good layer of sand with gravel on top has worked very well. Weeds haven't been a problem in the paths and anything that does come up is easily pulled because of the sand. It is almost impossible to pull some weeds out of compacted soil under weed barrier, that stuff is AWFUL. My biggest problem with weeds comes from the neighbors Hackberry trees so every spring I have to pull those but its just some stray volunteers the rest of the year. Actually I was quite surprised how few there are. This used to be a bermuda lawn which we killed with Roundup.