Need to know where you are located and pix of the area would help.

tj

How big do you want these trees to get?

Thanks for the reply! We’re located around San Francisco, CA area. We don’t want the trees to get too big since the area we are planting them in isn’t very large.

what purpose are they serving? Ornament, shade for some patio furniture, or both?

Thanks for all the great questions. I didn’t know there would be so many other factors to picking a tree! They could be either shade or ornament or both. This area is part of the side yard so there won’t be any patio furniture

can we have a pic of the whole area .. rather than just the wall ...

what are you wanting to hide up there behind the new fence.. how much ground between the back of the house. and that fence ... etc .. give us a flavor of the whole ...

on some level you are wanting a unicorn .. all plants drop stuff ... even the plastic ones ... so the best you can hope for is to minimalize it ....

ken

The planting area looks pretty narrow, so I'd be looking at trees that would produce a canopy at or above the fence height. Some small to medium sized possibilities are Western redbud (native), fruitless olive, Arbutus 'Marina', Japanese privet (trained as standard), Oleander (trained as standard) and crape myrtle. A bay tree, Laurus nobilis, could work but may require pruning to keep size manageable.

Other possibilities are very fastigiate or columnar trees - Carpinus betulus 'Columnaris Nana', Acer palmatum 'Twombley's Red Sentinal', Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Wells Special'

I can't imagine any kind of tree growing in that narrow space and doing well. Since it's a side yard I would go with columnar shrubs, or dwarf shrubs and low-maintenance perennials.

A row of three King palms with lower under plantings like Dwarf mounding Pittosporum or cycads.

I’d consider a tall hedge instead of trees in that space. It will hide your fence and fill the planting bed. How about pitisporum?