Look, maybe the spruces work for you, or will for a couple of years yet. Especially with cars occasionally coming off the road at your house, I'm not going to be the one to suggest you take them down without having a good replacement plan. A wood fence doesn't offer the same kind of barrier as tree trunks 6 feet apart. Personally, as I said on the other thread, I would try to plant a replacement row and let it grow in a bit before taking down the spruces, even if it is city property. Depends on your municipality. But you make a good point about salt spray. I'm sure there is a right plant though. Or, you could take out every second spruce first and plant something new in between them, and then when those get big enough cut down the other spruces and fill in those holes. It could even be new spruces, you've got one new one in with the big ones now anyway. So your barrier would be in a state of perpetual renewal and never entirely gone, not the worst thing. But your priority seems to be to make use of the backyard. I have to admit I don't understand this, given that you have a huge yard in the front that is probably quieter and safer. Maybe it's that your house is organized for easy exit to the back and not the front? Or you'd rather be closer to the road to get privacy from the neighbours? As for a structure, it can be as reliable and strong as you make it. If you buy a pre-fab from Canadian Tire or your local equivalent, it will obviously blow away unless you pack it away every winter. But if you sink some serious posts seriously deep and build the rest out of serious dimensional lumber with good joinery, it could be as solid as a house. By the way I think you'll always be cutting those trees down, not selling or moving them. They're common and fast-growing trees so I don't think anyone would have to go to the trouble of trying to dig them out. KarinL

I put about 8 bags of topsoil down there, 5 inches deep at the most, directly on the existing soil/roots. I had dug a few areas kind of testing out the soil to seed if I wanted to plant directly in the existing soil but decided to to raise it up a bit. For me, ferns, pulmonarias and hellebores do quite well there plus Tiarella and spring ephemerals like bleeding heart and Virginia blue bell. Astilbes dry out way too much. The surrounding trees are all doing fine. I have mostly ash trees there. I think if you do not cover a significant area beneath the tree or do not sever the roots in a large circle around the tree, the tree will adapt. Normally that tree would hAve years of leaf litter accumulating above the roots--it looks as though you remove the leaves. I would not plan on putting down 5 inches of soil across the entire drip area of the tree though. I think either a curved section of raised bed in front of that edger you have or a couple of individual beds would work fine there and give you spaces to add a bit of variety to your back yard.

I have a great leatherleaf viburnum that retains its leaves most of the winter, has spring flowers, and provides a good screen between my neighbor's yard and mine. It's about 12' tall and I don't think it will get much taller, at least not in my lifetime. Even a large shrub that loses its leaves in fall will give you great privacy when you need it, in summmer, and will obscure the view quite well in winter. Can you spare enough space to make a mixed border with several tall shrubs along that edge of your yard? It's hard to tell from your photo how wide the area is between the wall and the edge of the yard to the right, but I'd suggest rototillingg a swath along that side of the yard and planting whatever you like. The privacy will be taken care of without your having a wall or an oddly placed "specimen tree". Parts of the wooded border across the field look like they really contribute to your view, so leaving some gaps in height, as well as a partly obscured path (towards the right side) through the proposed border might work well for you. >... say "That is lovely landscaping... I really love that grouping of ... I agree with this completely, and I think the best way to get that is with a mixed bed. A single conifer in place of the red cartoon Christmas tree will look a little better than the cartoon, but an actual grouping of plants will look a whole lot better than that.

I am on a mission to spruce up my backyard in preparation for my husbands SURPRISE 60TH party in less than a month! Plan on having it in the backyard if weather permits. We live in Southwest Florida. I've spent the past two weekends trimming back and pulling out plants in beds that were leggy and overgrown. Our backyard faces south but gets some shade with trees and a wooden pergola, but mostly it's sunny. I'd love some ideas on what to plant in the bed areas. I like a tropical but somewhat neat look with some color. Also maybe add some water feature like a pot fountain.