Keep her safety in mind, also. I would not like the house totally hidden from the road.

As a 71 year old, I would not want a flower bed on both sides of the shrub/tree barrier. Too much to take care of at this point. I am moving to mostly shrubs and any flowers/perennials are natives (as are the shrubs I have been adding as I replace perennials). Once established, plants native to your area will rarely need supplemantal watering, unless you put a Cephalanthus (Buttonbush) in an area that is not really wet as I did. Sigh.

Here, I planted five Rhododendron maximum, two Kalmia, and two red cedars for evergreens along with deciduous shrubs. All are native for you, too. I also planted two Bayberries. (Myrica-pensylvanica now called Morella I believe. Myrica cerifera is better in the south, but it looks like it is not native to you.

My house has tons of shrubs and trees in the front and back yards and I love it. We only have a half-acre here in Northern Virginia.

ETA: good luck and I hope she loves whatever new garden she has! Wonderful for you to do this for her!

Native NC plants

You do want to avoid a big shrubby mishmash.

You could do a mix of small tree/ shrub. Not trying to creat a hedge, but a loose haziness of growing things. a few crape myrtles- maybe not the full size ones, but medium, and no crape murder. Of course they’re deciduous, but have a long season , fall color, pretty bullet- proof. Then some conifer shrubs or deciduous shrubs or both. Abelias.

I wil say tgat one advantage to giant mounded shrubs is they might be better weed- blockers. But somehow you would need to design this so it doesn’t become a giant mulch bed of maintenance. ‘ cause grass, mow & blow team is at least doable in most communities.

Also, I think it is good to put some of the screening a ways out, so as to preserve the “ lawn” and not to box her in , but, some “ blooming interest” might be hard to see, unless of course she does walk about the yard regularly, so I’d focus more on good “ forms” , with some evergreens, some foliage in lighter greens for contrast, and some lucky bloom times, but not feel you have to map out 12 months of bloom. Because then you’re trying to do the grand mixed shrub/perennial border, but not getting it. Maybe, depending on what’s close to the house, a choice small flowering shrub nearby would be nice

Right now, I'm pulling out some of the shrub borders because they are too much maintenance. I have to crawl around underneath them to find the baby trees growing there, and if I don't get them, they turn into untiny trees that I can't deal with at all easily.

I don't even want to talk about the poison ivy that gets under there.

Years ago, an elderly couple who lived a block away had 20 ft maple trees growing through their juniper shrubbery until they had the junipers removed.

Thanks for all of the ideas!

The more that I think about it, I'm thinking that instead of a "planned" line of shrubs it would look more natural to have a few small evergreen trees (like a Fluffy or Black Dragon) and then kind of spread out a series of shrubs, etc. If you're looking straight-in then it would still give her the privacy, but it would look more natural.

And then I'm not stuck with shrubs that are all the same height, I can vary it up a lot.

The only major thought there is... I don't want to buy things that'll take 20 years to mature, ya know what I mean? I need things to look good pretty close to immediately.

Keep her safety in mind, also. I would not like the house totally hidden from the road.

@jck910, we have several security cameras at her house, so that's not a huge issue. A few years ago she had a neighbor renting that trailer that snuck over and stole a bunch of her stuff! That's what prompted us to put in the cameras, and I know that's part of why she wants it blocked out. She just doesn't trust people anymore.

Wonderful for you to do this for her!

@cyn427, she's really the sweetest lady in the world <3 My own mom passed away in 2020 and then my dad passed in January of this year, so she's kind of become a surrogate mom to me.

Instant gratification wreaks havoc on good design.
Except maybe for the arborvitae hedges. Though I think more knowledgeable folks here could give more info on rapid growth. But I get it because I’m of a certain aged myself & there are things I’d like to grow, Or vignettes to achieve, but aren’t realistic time- wise. Or at least, not to put all my eggs in long- range design, which can of course be a legacy planting , but have some visible results planned in.

But, one year of some watering and then just rainfall may be fine for survival of some tough shrubs, but wouldn’t achieve their fastest growth potential. I think. Again you might focus, lining up a smaller target area that does some good blocking & put specific item there, but have other things to fill in your plan that might be “ lower and slower” but still attractive.

But I get it because I’m of a certain aged myself & there are things I’d like to grow, Or vignettes to achieve, but aren’t realistic time- wise.

Exactly :-( For my own garden, I've planted Little Gem magnolias and things that'll take 25 years to really fill in. But for my 70 year old MIL, that's just not practical. Maybe!! But probably not.

It does kind of present a conundrum, though. I know exactly what you mean about instant gratification, so I guess I'm just trying to do the best that I can for her.

one or two trees about 20 feet out form her house.. will hide the road and everything across the street a decade faster than smaller shrubs so far away from her vantage point...

i would recommend red bus... cercis canadensis ... but im not sure that would work in NC... and not any of the foo foo special ones that dont grow with the vigor of the species..

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cercis+canadensis&t=ftsa&iax=images&ia=images

i would not put in huge perennial beds.. unless you are willing to spend every weekend working in her garden while yours goes to heck.. it was the basis of why we had to move mom out of her house.. we boys couldnt keep the garden upkeep going.. we actually had our own lives on weekends... among other reasons of course...

ken

Jason I understand why you are thinking of using those weigela bushes as your starting point, but for me, I don't like the idea of putting the shrub border that far in. Seems to cut the front yard in half, I think.

I agree with picking a few sightlines and putting something more fast-growing there, and then letting some of the slower stuff fill in.

I'm doing the same thing in my yard on a much smaller level (only about 40 feet to fill in with a privacy border. But I personally am so against those lines of arborvitae - nothing but a big green fortress, imo. I'm not in your zone so it's kind of hard to recommend things, but I like that you are mixing things up! Also, in my humble opinion, one does not need a 10-, 12-, 15-foot shrub or higher in front for the most part. I find that 6 feet or so does the job. It's almost just the "feeling" of privacy that a shrub gives, if that makes any sense.

I'm helping my daughter with a privacy border in the back yard at her new house and I'm doing the same thing there - starting by placing things strategically, and going with shrubs that are 6-8 feet, punctuated by some taller things and shorter shrubs in front. Her neighbor is surrounded on ALL FOUR sides (in a quite narrow yard) by lines of giant arborvitae. It didn't take much for me to persuade her to do a shorter, mixed shrub border. :)

Please keep us posted on what you decide to do!

:)

Dee