I have a similar privacy screen along one border of our property...tall evergreens for the back row and flowering decidous shrubs in front. For the back row, we planted on 10' centers and came out about 10' from the property border. We used leatherleaf Viburnums, Carolina cherry laurels, chinese variegated ligustrum, and Ilex 'Nellie R. Stevens' in a balanced pattern across the length of the row.

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For example, if you were to follow the back row across, we planted: viburnum, cherry laurel, holly, ligustrum, cherry laurel, holly, cherry laurel, ligustrum, holly, viburnum. Because we used a mixture of the same plants on both sides of the center and ended with the same plant, the screen is balanced. For the front row of deciduous flowering shrubs, we followed a similar pattern, but staggered the shrubs so that they wouldn't align with the plants in the back row.

Oh thank you very much! I've seen your beautiful privacy screen several times before but it is hard to tell from a picture actually how it's laid out. That really helps. It sounds like you had a lot of space to work with and came out much further than I have done. The tea olives I have are pretty close to the fence and about 5 ft apart. Maybe I need to move them out a bit.

How big is your space? Mine is not all that large--about 50 ft long and 8 ft in some spots and maybe 12 or so in others. I could take out some more grass and enlarge it some.

Thanks again for explaining the lay out.