Reply #7: (Ignoring the clear duality: ) I've gone through stages with my bushes.

[UTUSN]

When I moved into my little digs, the yard was bare and like a tract place. I started out with pittisporum all around the front at the property line. One side grew ten feet tall, other places were stunted. Plus I had other types close to the house, as in your pic. Plus, "native" plants, the kind with thorns.

The thorned things were the first to go after the first few years, because all yardwork and pruning involved tending scratches and blood.

Then, after five or more years, the pittisporum started getting sick, fungus or something. So I replaced them ALL with Cape Honeysuckles, because they are somewhat native (actually from South Africa) and thornless and supposedly low maintenance. So those went on for another five or more years with the same tall and short results, then there was a particularly bad freeze and several in the perimeter froze dead and what was left was just scraggly and see-through.

So, I'm at the place where I WON'T (more than CAN'T) go through chainsawing junk down and then digging up the stumps, so besides the never-again THORNS, I've gone to the ultimate low maintenance: Something commercial, Arborvitae (or something), evergreens that are Xmas-tree-like shaped and grow fairly fast and apparently strike water deep enough to need little water from me and turn into a dense privacy fence and dust blocker.

Plus, what I would see wrong in the pic are things CLOSE TO THE HOUSE. I have gone ALL perimeter, nothing close.

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http://gardening.yardener.com/YardenersPlantHelper/LandscapePlantFiles/FilesAboutTrees/TreesEvergreen/Arborvitae

The Arborvitae for the South, while not as hardy as our native American arborvitae species, Oriental arborvitaes (Thuja orientalis) are widely planted because they tolerate heat, drought, and alkaline soil and have a reputation for toughness. For some reason this tree is often planted in cemeteries and is referred to as the Cemetery Plant.

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