Here is a view of my garage (the red one) and my neighbor's garage. The sad arborvita will go. Everythign to the righ of the power pole is hers, to the left of the pole is ours. The stick shows the max 6' height of a fence...although the fence would be a foot or two to the right of where that pole is now.

And here is the view (that we want to hide from view) from the east side of our screened in porch. The 6' fence will be just short of her kitchen widows (at the left/back corner of her house).

Next, I'll send an idea that I have, on a drawing.

Here's one idea I had. continue that low retaining wall, and flatten out the area right next to the driveway, and then a foot higher behind the wall. A fence, and then some shrubs.. maybe a new tree? and some perennial plants.

One other thing I'd like to do, is shield the view of our garbage cans, which sit just outside of the carport, under the 3' eave. they are a little visible from the street, and especially visible in the winter.

(please forgive my drawings...I'm not a landscape designer.... I hope they make sense! the dotted lines around the buildings show the eaves of the buildings.)

Thank you! I love how that obscures the view!!! That's an intersting idea. I love the curving wall. (I have a BS in architecture...but it was a long time ago. )

That curve along the edge of the driveway where you put the retaining wall against it, is the lowest part of the driveway. In Feb/March, when things are icy/melty, that's the trickiest part, because that's where the water crosses the driveway.

things I fogot to mention.... Also, the driveway turnaround is tight. (When I designed it, I knew it would be tight, but it works, so I'm happy!) So, along that edge, keeping things low is probably a good idea. Also, my grade lines are... iffy, at best. :)

Here is a view from the back, if that's helpful. I'm proud of the screened in porch. I designed it; my husband built it.

What about a row of arborvita... although, I kind of hate to do that....

I'll have to have my husband back his jeep out to see if that wall there would cause issues. I wish the edge of the driveway curved out closer to the garage - that would make it much easier for him to back out... here's at thought.... we could redo the wall.. just put some river stone in the leftover crescent shape along the NE part of the driveway because it will really be small. As small is it is though, it would solve the backing out issue.

I see in your sketch, that you put a small tree right where the elm was, which totally makes sense! Can you plant a tree where an old one was, right away? The stump base is almost 4' across... getting that out will be a huge hassle. This is a DIY job...did I mention that? :)

I would also consider a trellis with vines on the end of your porch that's toward the driveway, even with the fence and plantings. It will help give you screening when you are on the porch soon while you are waiting for the new plantings to grow enough to fill in the view.

There are all kinds of "wrong" conditions that happen in nature that would not be acceptable to humans when they are controlling the conditions. But the so-called "wrong" conditions sometimes demonstrate what is possible when push comes to shove. Such a situation is planting next to an old stump. It's going to be difficult because of massive amounts of wood being in the way. But so long as one plants in SOIL next to the old stump, it can be done. The smaller the new root system, the easier it will be. (The extreme example would be a seed.)

The floor-to-roof screening on the screened in porch looks very nice.

Here are some notes about the low retaining wall...

On the issue of planting next to a tree stump - that can be a desirable thing to do. The old stump will act as a moisture sponge to hold water, and will provide nutrients as it breaks down. Softwood trees are better at it than hardwood, as they breakdown quicker. A tree that will resprout from roots is not good - is that a potential issue with the elm? This past spring I planted a young dogwood close to the stump of a white pine that was taken down last fall. It has been unusually hot and dry here this summer, but the dogwood has been doing well. When we water the new tree, we make sure the pine stump gets watered too. It's basically the 'nurse log' concept....

Thank you! this is all excellent. I think we are going to do the fence first, and then revisit the retaining wall in the spring.

Yardvaark, that wedge shape may be kind of a necessity, in fact, it might even be partially paved/stoned to soften that curve. After discussing it with my husband this weekend, he reminded me that when he backs straight out of the driveway, he sometimes drives off that curve just a bit. If I had to design the driveway shape again, I'd soften that curve like this:

that shape is more pleasing to me, and would be more functional. Oh well! too late!

And Woodyoak, that makes total sense about the "nurse log!" I might plant something there this fall, just to get it started!