JB, 3 or 4 feet high will not afford much privacy unless you are hunched over right next to the shrub line picking weeds or picking up a ball. An expectation for privacy in your front yard seems to be a tall order to fill. Your current plant layout doesn't provide screening views from the side views. The rule of thumb for privacy is a six-ft high fence or planting, but having that in your front yard would seem to be anti-social. Privacy outside is somewhat hard to do in the suburbs with neighbors so close together and two-story houses. When I go outside I don't expect privacy, and I don't do anything outside I would be embarrassed to be seen doing. Okay I sing to my girls, but that's only embarrassing if you were to hear me! I find total privacy (meaning no views to the outside of my yard) to be unsettling, because I like to look out of my yard to see what's happening. A screen of fence or plants with select breaks allows for viewing the outside world from inside the confines of the yard, but any passerby would have to be more deliberate in intruding to view into your yard. I would think, if you are using the front for playing then, what you really need is more security. A fence or planting to keep kiddos, toys, and bikes from leaving the yard. What I have noticed in my neighborhood is that if cars can see my kids in the front, then they tend to slow down and drive more carefully.

Hi Ken, Thanks for the reply - here are some answers and more pics: what zone??? 6 what is the budget 8-$10,000 installed Are we starting with one gal one foot plants.. Don't mind starting with some smaller plants around patio area and inside fence or near pool, or interspersing some smaller plants for variety - but would like to get a bit of privacy with some 5-6 ft trees to reduce the view of the "McMansion" in the first photo I posted. I like your suggestion for around the pool equipment - full sun in zone 6 should work for that? The ditch is all our property. Where you see the treeline / ditch that is actaully drainage easement that runs underneath the roadway where the wooden fence is. Our property goes to the diagonal street sign in the left of the picture - ie we own most of the ditch/tree backdrop. We can we plant on the other side of the fence - there is about 15 ft of fairly level ground and then it slopes down from there. The ditch is about the size of a tennis court and is more level at the bottom. any color preferences besides all green .... would you like some yellows and variegation??? Greens, blues, yellow, burgundy- love variation in color! Need deer resistance on the outside of the fence- why do you want to see out there??? Want some unusual, unique, maybe dwarf, nice smelling flowering plants on the inside of the fence. We are not just pool people - really want to enjoy the outdoors in the fall, spring etc. Don't want anything too enormous or overbearing on the inside of the fence. Would like to be able to see some of the trees we plant on the outside of the fence from the patio. (ie trees of med stature inside the fence, larger ones outside the fence). Want some "wow" factor trees / plants here and there all over - I will pay for it and willing to start smaller with them as long as I can work in some larger screening trees as well. Hope photos below I had handy will help - I can take a few more or tell you how much space there is if that helps :

The Camillia I bought last fall is still hanging in there, but hasn't done well for me so far. I covered it over with a milk crate and leaves last winter, worried that it wouldn't tolerate the cold it's first season, after I planted it in the fall and not the spring. I don't think it appreciated having that milk crate of leaves sitting on it all winter, because it dropped all it's buds before they opened, then lost leaves over the summer. But it has been in the ground for a year and it still has some healthy leaves and I think I see a couple of flower buds starting to develop. This year, it's on it's own over the winter. I am still interested enough in growing them, to give it a different location if it is still struggling next spring. And I may order a different variety of Camillia and plant it in another location and try it again. I hope it makes it through the winter and starts putting on some growth next year. I think the biggest challenge in my garden is dryness and not the winter cold.

Pretty easy to tile up to the window. If you don't need to replace the window, you should be fine and a good tile layer can handle it. I would try to build in some slope to have the sill drain away from the window.