low maint. tall shrub or tree along vinyl fence for privacy?

[browngrass71]

I live on a corner lot facing road and have a nice 45 ft. long white vinyl/slatted fence running along my small, sloping yard for which I'm responsible for up keep. The fence is 6' tall and offers decent privacy. Two- story homes can see over it which is ok; but now the new neighbors directly across have started fighting regularly and like to sit on their front porch most days. This prevents me from fully enjoying my yard - at least when standing in the yard or inside my home looking out windows or viewing my street from sliding glass doors. I now have one view: my neighbors. Most might caution me not to, but I want to plant some variety of tall shrub or tree to block this view. However, I have HOA restrictions on trees - root system must be minimal and I'd need to be able to get to the fence to clean, etc. if need be. And of course there is the issue of overall appearance - w/ the fence beneath. The other challenge is that I have quite a small yard - couldn't plant anything too wide/full. (maybe 5' max?) I know I would have to maintain whatever I plant (probably at least 8' tall whatever it is - and have patience for growth) I figure I need to cover about 10 feet in length along the fence.... I wish I had a zillion dollars so I could knock out a lovely privacy border of something in two days time to give myself peace of mind, but I know that's not the way it works. Any suggestions I would welcome to at least get me started with my search...? Oh and I should add I have little experience planting anything - should that not be fairly clear.

[tomc]

You aught to have several choices of azalea--rhododendron to you. They have small feet.

[applestar]

What is the sun exposure of the area like? Will you be planting on the sunny side or shade side of the privacy (solid?) fence?

When you say "sloping" do you mean the property slopes DOWN to the fence and rain and irrigation water would tend to pool -- I.e. Tend to be moist or soggy? Is the area regularly irrigated -- sprinkler? Do you have control of that?

What is the soil like -- clay? Sandy? Under what might be a slim layer of topsoil under the sod? (I assume it's grass/lawn right now)

[rainbowgardener]

Personally, since you are saying the 6' of fence give adequate privacy, just not tall enough, I would think about a small tree rather than shrubs. A tree, once it is big enough, can be kept limbed up so that it isn't filling in the area right in front of the fence too much, make it easier to get to the fence etc. And one tree would probably fill the 10 linear feet you want covered.

When you answer applestar's questions we can give better suggestions, but off hand perhaps redbud or serviceberry? or dogwood, witchhazel, hawthorn, chokecherry, or dwarf fruit trees? All of these would be beautiful, flowering trees with habitat value. They can be kept pruned/ trimmed to the size you want. And trees generally, once established are pretty low maintenance, especially native trees like these.

[imafan26]

What is the height restriction. One of the HOA's here forbid fruit trees in the front yard and restrict height to 15 ft. Most small trees can still be 30 ft tall so you would have to go look for a dwarf tree. Unfortunately, unless you put in a large tree, it will take years to block that view.

I do know how you feel. The house next to me is rented and the current tenants have way too many people living in that house and they have seven cars. Every night they park and partially block my driveway, their dogs are noisy and have dug under my fence and come to poop in my yard and my other neighbors. They are noisy on weekends when they have even more cars. They also like to fight at 2 a.m. Plants from their yard are invading mine and my neighbors. The plants were put in by former owners and the current owner has a yard service, but it is hard for me to keep trimming a rampant shrub that I really want to use roundup on instead and I can't stop their Fukien tea, allspice and African tulip from reseeding.

[rainbowgardener]

Imafan is right that you will need to pick carefully, not just what kind of tree/ shrub, but what variety/ cultivar of it. Dogwoods for example come in a huge range, from bunchberry which is a creeping ground cover dogwood a few inches high, to red twig dogwood, which is a shrub 4-6' tall, to red pygmy dogwood, which is a dwarf dogwood tree 5-7' tall, rosy teacup dogwood which would maybe be called semi-dwarf dogwood tree 8-10' tall to full sized dogwoods 20' tall

When you tell us more about the conditions, we can help you think more about what would work.

[KiwiGardener]

I have used Phebalium Squamulsum as it grows quickly and is ideal for screening out unwanted views. Does anyone know if it is suitable for container planting? I plan to use 5 black large plastic rubbish bins as a "mobile" planting screen. Has anyone experience growing Phebalium or fejoa trees in large tubs?

[rainbowgardener]

Hmm.... I never heard of this tree/shrub before (being on the other side of the world from you ) so I looked it up. It is recommended as a quick growing evergreen for privacy screening. There must be a bunch of different varieties / subspecies of it, because various websites I found, listed it as growing to 1meter high, 1.5 m, 2 meters, 3 meters and Wiki says 1 to 7 meters, which is a huge range from a very small shrub, to a full sized tree....

This website:

https://www.smgrowers.com/products/plant ... nt_id=2901

noted that they grew it in containers.

If you were recommending it for browngrass, whose thread you posted in, I'm not sure if it would be available in our hemisphere and I don't know if it would be cold hardy enough. It is frost tolerant and cold hardy down to about 25 degrees F. I'm not sure of OP's climate, but that sounds like it might be pretty borderline.

[ElizabethB]

A couple of tips - whatever you plant allow for mature growth. Example - you plant a large shrub with a spread of 6'. Plant the root ball 4' away from the fence. 1/2 of mature spread + 1' regardless of the plant. Allow the same kind of spacing between plants. 1/2 spread + 1'. Even with that allowance your hedge will grow together and provide you with the privacy you are seeking. The worst mistake you can make is to plant too close to the fence and have your plants too close to each other.

Think long term. You have to maintain your hedge/trees. PLEASE don't over crowd.

Good luck

[KiwiGardener]

Thank you Rainbow Gardener for the link and advice. I gather from your comment that I am meant to reply to the person who initiated the "conversation" I.e. Brown grass? Just new to forums. An incredible resource. Happy Xmas all.