On Aug 28, 12:18?pm, Court wrote:
Hi there, Im a new subscriber whos lurked around the search engine of
this group for a while. This morning, new neighbors just cut down a
beautiful tree that was the corner tree for 4 house lots. This is the
second time in a couple years that neighbors have hacked away at their
backyards, replacing trees with other beautiful items, such as storage
sheds. I figure it's time for me to reverse this trend, and I have no
idea how, so I have subscribed.

I now have some ugly views of neighbors' windows and backyards. I
think it's time for me to plant some trees myself. However I have no
idea what to plant. Hoping to get some advice... Not sure what my
climate zone is, but it's San Jose, California--dry, summers get to
90-100 on hot days, winters have occasional freezes but usually only
once or twice a season. Lots of sun. My house is positioned in a way
that I have a back fence that gets directly hit by the morning sun.
The corner of the fence that is now treeless gets mid-day sun...about
4 hours direct. For comparison, citrus trees grow well here (but i
need something faster and taller). I'd like something that grows fast
but doesn't drop it's leaves, and doesnt grow too big... enough to
obscure a second-story bedroom window, and there's pools in the
backyards, so roots can't be a problem. The ground space I have to
work with is about 5 feet deep held by a retaining wall.

Im also looking at planting more (my neighbors are going to hate me)
but this is the current priority.

Looking forward to angering my neighbors with some arbor pollution,
can anyone help?

Thanks in advance,

Court

I strongly suggest you have your property surveyed by a reputable
local plant nursery. They probably won't charge you more than $100
and could even be free if you give them the planting job, which I also
strongly recommend... since you don't want to wait half a lifetime for
a sapling to become a tree it would behoove you to have more sizable
specimens professionally planted... many arid clime evergreens are
very slow growing. As angry as you sound you'll probably be very
happy with instant eyesore blockage. The nursery may also recommend
other appropriate screening besides trees... vines work well on a
trellis, especially grape vines. But just planting whatever strikes
your fancy without professional intervention will very likely turn out
to be a big mistake, a huge waste of time, energy, and money. Without
actually seeing your property with my own eyes all the specific advice
I could offer would be wild speculation, even photos don't offer real
help. Have a professional come to your property. And don't rush
headlong into any plan thrust upon you, take some weeks to mull things
over, mistakes can be very costly and you may have to live with the
wrong trees for a very long time, if you're not already too old, trees
just don't grow very rapidly, not even the fastest growers... a newly
planted tree typically needs five years to completely recover from
transplant shock before it actually shows measurable growth. One
specific piece of advice I will offer, make sure that whatever you
decide, that it won't grow so it hangs over on your neighbor's side of
the property line... if laws are still as they were when I lived in So
Cal neighbors can lop off whatever hangs on their side, I can still
remember the fig tree wars.