A hedge, more or less, is a wall. One thing I think always looks odd is a solid privacy fence (a wall) with a hedge (another wall, but green) in front of it. I think it's better to extend the height of the fence without blocking the fence entirely. One way to do that is to place large tree forms (of the height you wish to grow) in front of the fence. They can be placed as singles on periodic spacing ... or as groups, depending on what you are trying to achieve. They can be spaced so as to connect completely at the canopy area, or be spaced out so as to allow gaps, again, depending on what you are trying to achieve. Crape myrtles are one plant that can be used in this way, but there are innumerable others, depending on what you are trying to achieve. See sketch. (Oddly, this sketch I did awhile back was for someone else in Austin.) To question whether vines can achieve the height you want in a single season indicates that you have no experience with annual vines. Morning glories can grow 25' ht. in a single season if you do the things (common garden practices) that make them happy. Perennial vines are usually slower to get going, but they are there continuously. The easiest vine trellis is made by erecting two poles a few few apart. Install a large hook at the top of each one and span a chain between the poles (hung on the hooks.) Tie twine to the chain at intervals and connect it to the ground (tie to bamboo barbecue skewers from the grocery store.) Annual vines will quickly run up the twine and coagulate around the upper portions. (It can form a solid screen if you drop enough twines.) As annual vines go, there is nothing faster than gourd. Once it begins to climb it will reach the top in a week and begin sprawling all over the place in a couple more. (With kids around it can be a treat to watch the gourds form. Especially, try maranka -- the caveman club gourd -- for something they will really enjoy.) But leaves begin dying off from the bottom up after not too long, so it would best be followed with another annual vine ... like morning glories (Heavenly Blue cannot be beat) or Moonflower vine, if scent and evening flowering appeals. (IMO, moonflower makes the better screen.) I don't think it would be practical to trellis in your whole back yard. You might use the tree form shrubs for most of it, and use a trellis where you need the quickest screen.

We have a lot of rabbit pressure, but we have had minimal garden losses despite having no fencing whatsoever -- I spray the perimeter of our raised garden as well as plants whose leaves I don't plan to eat for a week or more with a peppermint oil-based, non-toxic spray. It smells good to me, but apparently the rodents aren't thrilled. There are some other sprays which use "putrescent egg solids" or garlic which seem to be effective. Some of these are tolerable-smelling, others are horrific smelling to humans...but only for about 2 days, then our poorly developed noses fail to detect the residual scent. Other mammals seem to remain grossed out for weeks. Part of our success is also probably due to the fact that the cats and dog occasionally kill a rabbit. The cats have no interest in squirrels and the dog is too much of a spazz to catch them, but the squirrels don't show a lot of interest in our garden most of the time. We also have voles which the cats kill ALL THE TIME, but as the cats are getting elderly (and we're DONE with cats after these two), I'm going to sink a foot's worth of wire mesh vertically along the perimeter of the garden box I'm remodeling just as a prophylactic for our eventual cat-free future. The dog thinks dead voles are gross and the live ones are apparently too slow-moving to be of any interest chasing.

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.

Thanks for the kind comments, Marie! Here are a few photos, splaker. I hope that this helps you with your project. Before I started this project in fall 2009, I think, I tried to web search mixed shrub borders and didn't find much that inspired me. But I knew I had seen in person similar things planted various places, so I had some ideas in mind and then just winged it. My goals were to block or distract from some of the sightlines to a work area from the main entrance drive. We had just cleared a wooded area to have more sun, so I was starting from a blank slate. I knew I wanted a mix of evergreens (for winter interest) and deciduous shrubs, vines and perennials for colorful and contrasting foliage and flowers. I know I have more space than the typical suburban yard, but something similar to this could be done on a scaled down basis. June of 2010 after planting fall 2009. 3 kinds of evergreens (2 or 3 of each randomly spread down the bed length - Thuja 'Sunkist', Thuja 'Techny' and a slower growing cultivar of blue spruce that I will probably eventually have to remove due to large size or budworm damage), a few small pagoda dogwoods, a couple of Hydrangea paniculata (Quickfire and Pinky Winky), a Coppertina Ninebark, two Spicebush (Lindera benzoin), a few rhodies, some winterberry holly, and a few perennials. Before planting, I laid down a bunch of composted manure. After planting the various shrubs, I mulched heavily for moisture and weed control, first putting down cardboard and then about 6" of loose mulch that packed down to 4" or so. Perennials were planted around the edges after the main shrubs were in by cutting through the cardboard. I tried to leave enough room between the evergreens and shrubs to allow them to grow to just grow together overtime, but not be super crowded, so it was rather sparse the first year or two. I didn't do formal plans, but knew the ballpark size of the mature shrubs and the bed size, and once I bought the plants, I plopped them down in the bed and moved them around until I liked the layout, and then got out the shovel. I didn't pick out specific varieties ahead of time, but went around to local nurseries during fall sales knowing that I wanted rhodies, varied colored medium evergreens, etc. and chose from what they had available (that met my needs) to keep expenses down. Looking east from the middle Looking NE from the SW side (June 2010) In December of 2010 after one full growing season looking west from the dirt pile just visible on the right (east) side of the photo above After 4 growing seasons with some added perennials but not much in the way of added shrubs it is fairly full. Late October 2013 June 2014 looking East along the front of the bed. Looking down the back side as fall color is just beginning to develop - no perennials since this is the work area side. Here's a photo in taken late November 2014 that was from a similar angle to the second photo at the top. There have been a few plants over the years that haven't worked out due mostly to the voles that are a curse of my gardening existence, but for the most part I am quite happy with the bed. It's at my husband's shop so I don't get down to it as regularly as I might wish, but it doesn't need more than a few of hours of weeding per season and some tidying up and cutting back in the fall as long as I keep the mulch in good shape. I add more mulch every couple of years where there is space between plants. I've also added edging, a combination of the rolled edge black plastic edging from a big box store and recycled bricks lining the inside edge of the plastic (visible 2 and 3 photos up) to run the lawn mower wheels on so no edge whacking needed. Also, a couple of comments on some plants mentioned in previous comments. I have 3 Viburnum plicatums, one of which is about as old as the bed above and might be mariesiii but might be another selection. They bloom well every year (we got to -22 last winter and near that most winters) so you should be OK unless you get a whole lot colder than that. They all have great fall color. Burning bushes can seed around to wild areas, so I wouldn't recommend them for that reason, but they are also boring green blobs most of the year. Blueberries are a good replacement if you have acid soil with spring flowers, summer berries for you or the birds, and nice red to maroon autumn color. I ripped out my one Viburnum 'Blue Muffin' because it didn't bloom well, had no fall color in my garden, and was infested with Viburnum beetle. There are quite a number of medium sized/slower growing Thuja cultivars that won't get giant (as well as other conifers that you could check out on the conifer forum.) I found 3 Thuja types in good sizes in local nurseries in my quite rural area, so you have a good chance of finding some. If you have a lot of deer they may not be a good choice unless you want to spray them in winter. We have deer, but are rural enough that they don't bother the gardens for the most part. I really like the various variegated shrub dogwoods and the size of the larger ones will work well for you. Coppertina is has been a great shrub for me, but if they are prone to mildew in your area, there are others that are less mildew prone in tests. I'd love to hear how your project works out!