Is this area in full sun? Are you looking for an evergreen in particular?

Are you trying to block sight or noise? If it is only sight, for similar cost, you could probably do a fence and then dress up your side with plants/trees you really like as time and budget permits. Trees would probably be better for noise reduction.

Or some kind of support structure for a fast-growing vine is another possibility.

What zone are you in? You might consider wax myrtles, which grow fast and will give the higher evergreen screening you want -- and berries the smaller birds love. If you want to put in a privacy fence, you can prune the wax myrtles up to tree form and plant ornamental shrubs and plants under them. There are also some hollies that will grow tall enough, but may take longer to get there.

We are in zone 7b. The hedge is for both sight and sound. I guess the thing is we are looking for something that is already grown close to 8-10 feet or would do so in months, not years. I understand its a tall order (no pun intended). Just didn't know if anyone knew of anywhere that might specialize in carrying taller trees.

We are kind of sold on the evergreens because we would like the barrier year round.
The vine concept does sound interesting. How fast would one take and do you have any suggestion on what type of vine?

The area as spots of medium sunlight and some spots of full sunlight. There is a large hickory tree that is right in the middle of where we want to put the hedge and I'm not sure if there will be root and sun competition that might prevent another tree/shrub /vine from growing in that one area. I'm open to anyone's thoughts on that as well.

I'm going to check out wax myrtles and see how tall they can be purchased.

Thanks for your input!

Buying very large trees has disadvantaged other than their price. You are going to need to baby them for a while.

Fastest growing summer vine that isn't invasive (much)? Gourds, probably. But they are not evergreen. You could use them while something else gets established.

Evergreen vines include the ivy family, carolina jasmine and possibly creeping fig in 7b

I would check with John Deere nursery out on Hwy 119 east of 280. They carry many large specimen trees.

7347 Cahaba Valley Rd (Hwy 119)
Birmingham AL 35242
Phone 205-980-0770
Fax 205-408-9664

When we had to replace our sewer line, it killed the 40 year old maple tree that shaded the front of our house. We found (in the yellow pages) a company that moves large trees, so we hired them to plant an oak tree next to where the maple had been. They came in with a big digger with 4 large hydraulic blades, dug a hole, and hauled off the dirt in the scoop. A couple of hours later they returned with a 15-20' oak tree on top of the truck with the root ball contained in the scoop, set it into the hole, watered it, and left. Since the hole and the root ball had been dug with the same scoop, the fit was perfect and that tree never knew it had been moved. It didn't cost a lot more than buying and planting 4 big shrubs and we got instant shade. In a surprisingly short time it was a big beautiful tree. You might want to look into something like that.