What is being screened from what? In zone 5, the requirement of evergreen severely limits your choices.

Front yard screened from the view to the road, nothing close to the house.

Can you provide a photo taken from the house?

Maybe someone can cough up an evergreen suggestion, but there are very few that are truly suitable. If you have width--which it sounds like you do--why are limiting to evergreen only. Deciduous can screen, too, after it develops. Is $ a factor?

Won't have a photo for a while. I want evergreen so it's covered in the winter too and not all bare. Some money is a factor, depends how broad the tree gets as it may take a bunch of thin ones, or fewer broad ones, etc. I guess I'm probably going with a mugo pine as it seems the best option I can find.

Still open to suggestions. I'd also like to know what could be planted in a road ditch so it doesn't have to be mowed but doesn't allow weeds to grow.

The only other evergreen that comes to mind is Taxus-- Yew -- but they are probably not any faster growing than mugo pine. They're kind of expensive, too.

For the road ditch... clover?

I never thought of mugo pines as hedging material. I suppose there are varieties that grow in different ways than the nice symmetrical pillows commonly seen. I have a couple and candle cutting is a rite of spring. I also pass by several that have been unattended for decades, have a lot of bare trunks, and have grown to the size of small planets.

Could plant crown vetch in the ditch - good coverage, but it has its attendant problems.

I've seen some mugos locally that I can definitely imagine making a good hedge. The biggest problem may be getting a bunch with similar growth habits, since the usual clones are too dwarf for hedging.

Large, spreading junipers are another possibility. My neighbors have a hedge of Hinoki cypress that is starting to thin out, but it is at least 20 years old.

The classic ditch groundcover for sun is aggressive 'ditch' daylilies. They aren't easy to find to buy, but if you know anybody who has any, they are easy to dig. Woody weeds can establish in them, but if you mow them at the beginning and end of the season it should take care of those.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Here is a picture from google maps, as I don't have a decent camera available at the moment. The trees you see in the picture are now GONE. The power company continued to trim them and asked if they could whack them down so it was no longer a problem. That is where I want to put in a new hedge...permanent, that won't need trimmed every few years.

20 years to me for a hedge is not near long enough. I'd really like the hedge to last my time, but that is asking for too much maybe. At least 40 years. I figure a mugo pine would last a long time being a pine, but I may be wrong! Here is the link to what I was planning on - http://www.lawyernursery.com/productinfo.aspx?productSpecies=Pinus%20mugo%20'Mughus'%20-%20Slovenia%20seed%20source&categoryid=87

Crown vetch looks nice for that road ditch, not sure what you meant by attendant problems. I was thinking maybe some ground cover vines that are hardy...the type you can walk on or cut and not harm at all for zone 5. Not aware of any or where to start for that matter, just heard of them.

Yews might get sunburnt... so why not mugo pines, they'd be lovely, and I think I'd pick a dwarf variety since the regular ones can get as tall as the power line height, eventually.

My understanding is that the Mugo Pine I have picked out gets ~10ft. That'd be fine I think. I don't really like how the dwarf ones get 6-7ft only.

We had junipers that were glorious hedge material. Our particular ones grew to 6-7 feet tall and we're in the neighborhood of 40 years old. Super healthy too.
{{gwi:46815}}

{{gwi:46816}}

I'd like at least 10' is the ordeal for the hedge, so it's a shady area in addition.

I think I will go with 10' Mugo Pines (non dwarf) and a series of Juniper Skyrockets (pricey little things) behind the Pines. Any thoughts on this?

--- ON the road ditch cover, I found those ditch lilies online. I was wondering about something people call walkables or stepables that are just a thick ground cover that can be mowed if desired. Any particular ones do well if there happens to be a lot of water and possibly salt?