Why do you have to use plants to screen and not a fence? HOA requirements?

Hire a garden consultant to view the site in person and figure out why some of the shrubs are dying.

The heat from the concrete might be killing them. Do pines grow in FL? Up north those pines would eat your equipment in no time.

Note that the original post identifies them as Podocarpus gracilior. These are also genetically programmed to get a lot bigger than they are now, but can be successfully pruned to control size. And are not pines as in the sense of Pinus.

And, yes, actually Florida has lots of pines (Pinus) that even grow natively there.

Pine Trees of Florida

http://www.treesforme.com/fl_pinus.html

Thanks everyone for your quick responses! Yes - HOA says no fencing material. I've had two different landscape contractors scratching their heads, but great ideas regarding having the soil tested and checking about the heat of the concrete. And yes - there are many native pine trees in S/W Florida. I was really surprised upon my first visit to see more of those than palm trees! The Fern Pine is actually native to Africa, but is known to be extremely hardy in my area. My neighbors actually have them around their pool equipment, and they are doing fine. Go figure!

Get somebody who appears to be well informed to come and examine the carcasses, dig around in the soil there.

I know one fragrant plant would cover it in FL, it might eat your pool equipment though, you have to trim it monthly. You can check with your local nursery. It’s called Night Blooming Jasmine, very fragrant. I grow it in a pot here.

summersrhythm_z6a - I happen to have that Night Blooming Jasmine planted along the wall on the other side of the pool equipment - how funny! It is a climber and would definitely eat my pool equipment :)

I planted blue plumbago around my pool equipment. Its extremely popular here on the SE coast because it blooms nearly all year and stays at about 5 - 6 feet - though it does grow wider than the podocarpus you have there. Not sure why your plants are dying - does water come out of the pipes - like overflow? If that were the case, I would think your grass would suffer too.

i dont know anything about FL horticulture ....so i leave plant suggestions to others ....

but i wonder if you are not leaving any room for maintenance of the equipment ... and all i know about pools.. is that owners seem to spend a lot of time messing with such ... lol ... perhaps you are on the verge of being over planted .... you need to space things for their future potential.. not the size of the plants you have right now ....

or the pic is wonky.. and there is room ..

ken

ps: quit worrying about the neighbor ... do you really think they spend that much time looking at the side of your house??? .. and if they do... whats that all about ...

Sonni1 - I LOVE blue plumbago - it is quite beautiful in bloom, but it would probably be too wide and not tall enough for the space.

Ken - So funny you should say something about my neighbor because he DOES sit out directly across from my pool equipment ALL THE TIME! Unfortunately, that's just the way the houses are laid out. So, I guess I am trying to be a bit neighborly and make his view a little nicer ;) The picture does make it look like there isn't much room between plantings, but there is plenty.

I'm wondering if perhaps when the pool people are servicing the system they are spilling some of the water into the plants. We have a salt water pool. Hmmm...

Can you use a free-standing flat trellis instead of a fence with some type of vine that is evergreen in your area and can be pruned as needed? That way you can cut back hard and remove the trellis if equipment needs replacing, but will regrow more quickly than most shrubs would.

I do agree that a soil test and consult by someone with a background in plants rather than just a landscape contractor (who may or may not have a background in plants) would be helpful.

We need to know basics. Who planted them, how were they planted and how were they cared for?

tj