is this your property???.. i dont understand how you are blocking neighbors behind .... is it a green belt or something???? .. or you didnt fence your whole property?????

and do i understand this pic correctly.. that is your house.. from the area behind your fence .. correct ...

i think you ought to stay away from the picea pungens ... and i would lean toward green giants .... though i have no expertise about AL ...

stay away from anything marketed as FAST GROWING ...

you will get a lot further on the WWW if you learn and use full latin names .... the better sites only use those ....

welcome to the forum .....

ken

We own a few feet back behind the fence. This is a photo of our backyard looking into the neighbors behind us. Thank you for your advice.

Even in my northern, Zone 7 garden, we rely on M grandiflora.

My husband loves Magnolia , but I've never liked how their leaves take forever to decompose. I feel like those look best in a large empty space where they're the only thing around. :)

Not evergreen but Taxodium grows quickly, and Metasequoia grows as fast as anything in good soil. Both are long lived and shaped right to withstand winds.

I will add just now they're dropping needles up here.

Whatever you do, unless you are really into formal English gardens and maintenance go with a mixed planting so one year of bad weather or the appearance of the wrong bug doesn't kill all your trees.

Leyland cypress.

Leyland cypress probably not a great choice for Alabama. It is very prone to a couple of extremely debilitating cankers just about anywhere in the southeast. And it is not at all shade tolerant, developing a very sparse and lopsided growth habit in much shade.

Fifty Trees for Alabama - ANR 1288

http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1288/ANR-1288.pdf

Ilex aquifolium

Arbutus Unedo

I don't know how well they would perform in the northern part of the state, but down here Spruce Pine (Pinus glabra) would work great for an area like that since its shade tolerant.

China Fir may also work, they're shade tolerant as well.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. Embothrium, that is an awesome resource that I'm definitely bookmarking! Thanks for sharing it.

Alabama native (me), but I've been gone from there for 30+ years... but my BIL(whose course of study in college was Ornamental Horticulture), just outside of Montgomery, planted a Leyland cypress when his daughter was born, 25 years ago... It's now huge... they have to use a bucket truck to string Christmas lights on it every year. No disease issues that I've ever noticed when I've been there to visit.

Being an oak/hickory guy, it's the only Leyland that I can say I've ever noticed or known what it was, but it's certainly been less than problematic, with regard to any issues.

Chamaecyparis thyoides might be another possibility. They are native to swamps, but I've got a few that pulled through last year's drought just fine with no watering.

We own a few feet back behind the fence.

==>>> good ... i would hate for someone to come along in a decade or so ... when the tree has achieved all you want for it ... and demand removal .. because its not on your property ...

i hope also.. there arent any power lines back there ...

ken

No, no power lines. And we intend this to be our house for a long time so I'm happy to invest in some good trees now.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I'm going to be thinking about it over the winter and hopefully have a decision by the time it's warm enough to plant (which for us is usually around April!)

I'd definitely consider in Chindo Viburnum, and there are oh so many hollies... Oakleaf holly, Lusterleaf (latifolia), Fosters holly (slower growing), Eagleson holly (if you can find it), Mary Nell holly, any of the Koehne hollies, such as Wirt L. Winn, Lassie holly (if you can find them), 'Libery', 'Home Fire', 'Emily Bruner', Yaupon holly (weeping), Skip laurel, Teddy Bear Magnolia, Magnolia virginian australis, Osmanthus fragrans, or Osmanthus x fortunei, Ternstroemia, and maybe Loquat as well. You could also throw in a few Trachycarpus palms. You didn't say how tall it needs to be though.

Some people might be surprised by the warm winters that we have had down south recently. I live in north Georgia and if the winter is warm, you can pretty much plant down here without too much issue. Last winter, metro Atlanta had its third warmest winter on record, with an average temperature of 52 degrees. The ground never really chilled. I planted cherry laurels in the shade in February of 2017 and they grew 3 feet this year. Even this fall, we haven't had a freeze yet.

(Granted, roots do grow more in the dormant season!)

For OP, I would recommend hollies or cherry laurels (they grow quickly and tolerate shade) if you want to go with a shrub, and ironwood (buy a larger specimen of the tree, since they grow slowly) if you want a tree. Ironwoods are understory trees and have a very dense branching habit so while they lose their leaves in winter, the branching is dense. Suggest to get an ironwood that has a great red-orange fall color. (Many are yellow.)

Dave has some good suggestions. I love the tea olives, they are shade tolerant and the fragrance wafts across an entire yard. But they do not grow very fast.

"Last winter, metro Atlanta had its third warmest winter on record, with an average temperature of 52 degrees."

And a few years before, they had one of their coldest winters since 1985. But overall, agree that fall planting in zone 7 and south, especially, is better. As long as you are talking about locally sure-fire hardy plants, that are already hardened. For something like a Trachycarpus palm, maybe wait until spring.

"Dave has some good suggestions. I love the tea olives, they are shade

tolerant and the fragrance wafts across an entire yard. But they do not
grow very fast."

It's all relative, I wouldn't call them slow either.

"I'd definitely consider in Chindo Viburnum"

When wouldn't you, Dave? Lol

"Some people might be surprised by the warm winters that we have had down south recently."

Christmas of 2015 was somewhere around 75-78 degrees here. We had to turn the air conditioner on. Last Christmas wasn't quite as warm, likely 40-50 degrees. Feels like 20 degrees outside now.

Heather: we also live in Northern Alabama and have a similar issue. Which tree did you go with and has it worked out?

I like English Laurel, Skips or Ships.

Wow I haven't logged into this account for a while! Forgot about this post.

Steve: we planted a Nellie R. Stevens holly behind the fence, but it's slow growing and has only just now reached fence height. We have a similar treeline gap in another area where we planted a Thuja Green Giant Arborvitae around the same time, which is now visible over the fence and has proven very hardy without regular care. The scrub brushes that were pre-existing (eastern junipers and some kind of privet) have grown up enough that much of this gap has been covered.

Heather: Thanks for the follow-up. My situation is a big different in that it's not an over the fence back yard type situation but instead a much more open front yard situation. That would predicate I use larger trees. Reading through the thread you started I think maybe an American Holly or two will do the trick. I have a large yard that used to face woods across the street; well, now the woods have been mostly cleared and not I'm looked at a construction site/soon to be new house. The other property owner left a few trees up but not very many. My property is higher elevation so I basically and no looking downward and towards his home. My plan would be to plants trees in the front of my yard to provide some greenery and not someone else's house. Thanks!