You'll need to supply pictures of the area from the outside, too. Show it from both directions. Position the camera near the lot line. Back up far enough that both your house and the neighbor's house show, including your window and their opposing windows. (Don't be so far away that things are hard to see.)

How far from your house is the boundary?

Thank you, both!

latifolia - The north side of the house is 5 feet from the property line.

Yardvaark - I could only find one outside picture of that area, below. Still looking to see if I have better ones.

I suspect the landscaper will say it's not really suitable for anything. If they have grandiose plans, I'd get a second opinion. That's an extremely narrow and sun restricted space for anything to get tall enough to give you a green view. It's generally not advised to have plant material touch a home's exterior surface, which includes fences. Your kitchen will be beautiful with a light filtering roman shade.

Thanks, Anne Duke... I appreciate the honesty. And I had a feeling that might be the case. A light filtering shade was my backup plan, was just hoping for some green. But, if it's not possible, it's not possible. :)

Just throwing this out there ... what about a shade-tolerant clumping bamboo?

Beth H - As usual, you come though with amazing advice. I never thought of planters, but all of these are fantastic solutions. Thank you!

Bamboo would not be a good solution on account of the restricted space.

A possible landscape solution is a trellis that extends beyond the height of the fence. But any vine on it could probably not be maintained at less than 3' thickness. That'd be 18" hanging over your side and 18" hanging over onto the neighbor's side. So they'd need to be agreeable to the solution and want it as much as you. A potential problem spot could be maintenance if one party neglected their duties. The kitchen shade is probably the easy way out.

Plants in pots can be difficult to maintain over the long haul and often end up looking sickly in spite of what owners try to do for them.

Thanks, Yardvaark(9A). I have discussed it with the neighbors and they were interested in a landscape solution, too. I assured them that I would not install anything without discussing the proposed solution with them first. I'd prefer to not do vines, as I have a lot of them at my current house (wisteria, confederate jasmine, passion flower, lady banks rose) and they require constant attention to keep them under control.

What about instead of potted bamboo, I did something like sky pencil holly?

I've had my bamboo growing in a large pot(s) for sometime now and it does fine. Bamboo actually prefers to be root bound. Smit, you would have to prune it to keep it looking like the 2nd pic. and it likes a good bit of water. Periodically adding some fresh soil and fertilizer will keep it healthy. I water mine w/the water from my koi pond.

you could always frame this reed thing and put this up as a screen. frame it w/the redwood

That's great advice, Beth. I think if I go the pot route (which I'm really leaning towards) I'll have them connected to my irrigation system. It can get *very* hot and dry here in the summer months. But, I'll be sure to follow your steps to fertilize and add soil when needed. I love the look of your first two pics and I'd be really happy with either. I'm going to take all these recommendations to my landscaper to discuss what would work best.

good idea on the drip. I've had my bamboo in one of those large, like 3' tall large, glazed ceramic pots for over 6 years now. the bamboo is above my roof! grows crazy fast. but in the summer (we also get super hot) I water it every day. a lot of water. Black bamboo can be thinner, but it's a slower growing. If you want to pay the money, but one that's already 6' tall. I have the regular green, leafy variety.

Some time ago I had a client with a new home under construction where we had exactly the same type of situation. After a discussion with the builder we all agreed that the best solution was to remove the present kitchen window over the sink and install a greenhouse window with a single glass shelf. This allows the homeowner to grow potted plants and herbs, moving them around until they block the view. The homeowner loves her greenhouse window and the ability to always have fresh herbs within easy reach plus seasonal, living flowering plants to enjoy daily. We are still in touch and she lets me know what is growing in her greenhouse often. She tells me that the extra cost was worth it because of the enjoyment it brings to the household. If the situation is shaded there are many plants that will thrive in lower light situations in a greenhouse.

Thanks, nandina ... that's a very creative solution that I hadn't thought of. I think I'm going to pursue the landscaping option for now and see what the options are, but I'll keep that suggestion in mind.

All that's necessary for this situation is to choose clumping kinds of bamboos instead of running ones - "bamboo" does not automatically = highly invasive plants that travel sometimes yards at a time to form large patches or groves.

As much as I like plants it's hard to get much to grow in complete shady. The plant often gets leggy (ie leaves spaced farther apart)

Here is a link to an expandable lattice. green lemon leaf on expandable lattice

This is one of the green walls (plastic) we did for a customer. You could always just create one raised panel area not the whole line of the fence.

A bit off topic, I apologize, but can you tell me the type, brand,
color, size of your floor planks? I'm looking for new flooring and I find yours
to be in the range of what I'm looking for. Also, is your backsplash
marble or porcelain? I was going to email my questions to you but couldn't figure out how to do it. I'm a bit new and never contacted anyone on this site.

Hi, Damond ... of course, I'd be happy to share. The floors are white oak in the "atrium" finish shown here (scroll down). The backsplash is 2x4 polished carrara marble with silver shadow grout. Hope that helps!

smit,,just noticed those floors. beautiful. I also wanted to comment on you taking your backsplash all the way up and around. I love it when people choose to do this. looks very nice.

Thanks, Beth! I really appreciate that. :)

It took a *ton* of tile to do it, but I'm really happy with how it came out. And hats off to the tile installer. That couldn't have been an easy job.

Thanks, Smitrovich. Very helpful... And beautiful choices.

We also live in Austin! Well, now in Lakeway. But when we lived in Steiner Ranch we lived in an area that could only have wrought iron fencing and everyone could see into everyone's backyard. So our pool guy put up a custom 3-panel wood privacy screen from a picture I found on Houzz on one side of our deck. It was tall and it had some hanging baskets on it.

From your picture, I'm not sure how feasible it would be to have hanging baskets. Keeping hanging baskets looking good can be a challenge with the Texas heat. Perhaps a tall growing plant in some large pots as mentioned previoulsy would look good.

Let us see what you end up doing!

Keep in mind that with the gate there, it's a passage way. 5 feet in width when using 20-24" of pot plus plant material will give you at most 24 to 30 inches of comfortable walking space. Lots of good suggestions here, do post what you decide on.

My choice would be to add a shelf below the window and place containers of plants on it. Position it so the tops of the containers are right at the bottom of the window frame; it will probably be at around the same height as the top of the fence. Similar in idea to a window box but for myself I prefer a shelf and individual containers, as it makes it easier to replant, clean up, etc. and it is more versatile. In autumn the shelf can hold a display of pumpkins and gourds. In winter I use lanterns with LED candles and evergreen boughs, red balls, velvet ribbon. I think your neighbor would love to look out and see a pretty seasonal display!

During the spring and summer you can choose drought-friendly annuals to fill the boxes with bright colour. I like begonias. I live in BC Canada where it is very wet in winter but the summers are hot and dry and I am terrible about neglecting my hanging baskets. Begonias are tolerant to over drying; mine are still thriving on the north-west side of my garden shed despite going up to a week between waterings this summer. They don't mind shade either.

Thanks for the great comments, everyone! All fantastic points and advice.

williann - Hello fellow Austinite/Lakewayian! Great feedback. I'm definitely leaning towards using several large pots with planted bamboo. That will control spreading and allow me to move them, if necessary.

Anne Duke - Good point! You can't see it in the picture I posted of the exterior, but the space really isn't a passage way, as the AC unit is there and blocks the path already. There is better access from the other side of the AC unit.

lindsey(8a) - Great ideas! I can totally picture all those lovely seasonal displays. I just wonder whether I will be able to stay on top of updating and maintaining it. Something to think about though, for sure. It would create a nice view.

That's why I loved the shelf; I could mess with it 2-3 times per year, and if I didn't get to it it's only 8" deep so it just kind of blends into the wall :) (It was at our last house, actually) And yours would be below the level of the fence so neither you nor your neighbour could see the shelf itself, if it did happen to be empty!

I totally get hesitating to add another level of maintenance commitment though :-D