It is nearly impossible to offer any meaningful advice or suggestions without a better and more visual explanation of the situation. And the best way to accomplish that is by attaching photos.

The easiest way to do so is to set up a free online photo hosting account, then link to it with the provisions provided by GardenWeb. I am freely plagarizing from another post with a similar issue that provided these links as explanation:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/design/msg1021520018208.html?5
And I'll just add that if you don't see your photos after clicking "Preview Message," you need to try again. (Similarly, when posting links, always test the links in "Preview Message" to make sure they work.)

Here's an old thread which discusses some details which may or may not help:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/design/msg041908149586.html?16

A late GW poster wrote up these instructions, and they are still available on his Photobucket account:
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b333/1billp/PostAPictureA.jpg

Here's the site's info:
http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/pepper/2002072150000611.html

Good luck and post some photos!

Thanks, here are the pics and some comments. Our goals are to get privacy in a very non private location. So we planted 100+ italian cypress on the west side of the property (barely visible) along with 100+ texas privets.

To the left is the service road, that is the neighbors property but they have some interesting plants.

I removed two 20ft palms to minimize the strange shape of the property:

{{gwi:52869}}

This is the entryway, we were thinking about explandign the plantable area, and switching one of the zones from grass to drip. But there is a lot of shade on this north side and I must radically top or remove the carrotwood tree to the left or east, in order for the plants to get morning sun.

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Below is view the top of the driveway, as you can see, not very private. The no trespassing sign is because people were constantly cutting through the property from the dead end, to the newer street the put in next to us. People walking dogs, pushing strollers, riding bikes right through our yard. We want to install a 16ft wooden drive gate to further block the view of the property.

{{gwi:52871}}

Below are some more pics of the work, you can see remnants of the root balls of the palms by the green waste cans. Top left hand corner you can see the school, we were going to grow some mango trees in the back to block the school.

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Here is a view of the neighbors toolshed, not the best, but they've been looking at my direct for awhile, so I can't complain. The smaller palm in the middle, I Will remove.

{{gwi:52869}}

to reiterate our goals are:

#1 privacy
#2 hardy foundation plants that will do well in partial shade

should we add any more fruit trees to north side?

what can we do hardscape or soft to dress up the garden?

well grow our grass last.

we have been overrun with gohpers but juicy fruit gum seems to slow them down.

thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: front yard photo album