Hi everybody,

I need to plant two fast growing evergreen trees in my backyard to screen my neighbor's house.

Specifically, I need to screen the neighbor's window which looks directly into my backyard, so I need an evergreen which grows fast and with a rounded canopy and a single trunk.

I was considering a line of Green Giant Arbovitae or Leyland Cypress; however, I found out it is prohibited to plant these species because of fire safety reasons in Marin County. Arbovitae, Cypress, Eucalyptus, Bamboo species are all prohibited.

Furthermore, the area where I want to plant the trees gets very windy and cold in the evenings and nights. USDA Hardiness Zone in my location is listed as 9b.

I considered some Oaks species, but are mostly slow growers and too big when mature, but I'm open to suggestions about Oaks I might not know.

I also considered Ficus Microcarpa (or eventually the New Zealand Christmas Tree) which is planted all over San Francisco as a shade street tree and I love it, but I'm not sure whether it can withstand the winter temperatures of my windy valley (it can get low as 37 degrees in winter).

I considered Magnolias, but I don't like them very much.

I attach a few pics of my backyard with the marked spots where I'm planning to plant. I am sure of one spot (marked in yellow), but I'm undecided on which side of the fence to plant the second tree (red marks on pics).

Please, help me with some suggestions.