Pittosporums of various types. All thrive in z17. Its why you see so many in GGP. They aren't weedy fast though and that's a good thing.

Then there is always old faithful Xylosma. Drought tolerant. Photinia's, Escallonia's. All popular with citys who dont have time for fussy.

You could even use young live Oak tree's to make a tall hedge. Looks good too. Monterey Cypress and Redwoods can be a tall hedge. All love a z17.

Those last- need pruning. Not plant and walk away!

For drought tolerant friendly plants feel free to check out my profile we have done a number of drought tolerant turf replacements. Also for a hedge anything that grows 10' get's 3' wide, ligustrum texanum, podocarpus, bush cherry, etc.. and all need water. It is what it is a plant needs water to get tall.

I tried to upload photos before but gardenweb wasn't letting me - trying again!

i know all plants need water and new plantings especially - I'm just looking for the lowest water use ones. Redwoods would invade everything with roots and I don't think neighbors would appreciate them planted 5' from their house!

Also we have a toddler so no toxic berries or poisonous plants.

Sounds like pittosporum is a good choice. I'll upload pics later if I can. Thank goodness we are not in the fire zone but the smoke is still unhealthy out there

Here's a photo of the neighboring house from our yard. We haven't done anything with our yard yet, this is what we are starting with.

Hmm,why a solid block of green? A trio of King palms in front of that home would look good. Its like a blank canvas..paint something nice rather then a solid color.

If not palms..how about something like a lacy Japanese maple? Or a weeping tree?

Silk floss tree would look great for years fronting that. Dry Garden always has them.

Then of course there is the whole range of drought tree's and shrubs. Pick one that makes a nice profile.

The rest of that fence could be the hedge areas.

Tmnca, in the photo above what are the plants to the right and left of the big blank wall? They seem to need some attention.

I think a Ray Hartman Ceanothus would be good in that space if the conditions are right.

Have you ever been to Annie's Annuals in Richmond? They have a lot of interesting plants there.

Just getting back to this now. The plant on he left is a wonderful thriving but unruly-looking lemon tree. I’m not sure the variety but it has been producing delicious juicy lemons since December (all our friends and neighbors have been well supplied!). I’m not sure whether I should prune it for appearance since it’s thriving so well.

The green “stuff” on the right is a big mess of things - in winter we discovered a nice flowing quince behind, covered with brambles, an old grape vine, and underneath some aloes and some yucky invasive species. There’s some kind of fruit tree in there maybe peach or plum but it’s gone wild, and an apple tree sapling planted in front. All in about 10x10’. We removed some of the brambles and invasive but for now left the rest so we don’t have to look at the neighbor’s deck there.

We ended up planting a toyon, a coffeeberry and a Ray Hartman along that fence line. The lemon tree will stay but I hope to gradually prune back the sad stone-fruit tree and remove it as the toyon replaces it, and I should probably transplant the apple tree and the grapevine to a more suitable location this fall after they go dormant. We had too much more pressing to do on the house last fall/winter. Will I likely kill them if I try to transplant?