We live on a street where the houses were all built in the 1920's, and every house has a small yard, because the homes are all like 10 feet from one another. We have neighbors 10 feet to the left of us, and neighbors 10 feet to the right of us.
Our neighbor on the left side of us, we get along great with. It's the NOSEY Portuguese immigrant neighbors on the right side of us, that are the problem.
The reasons why we can't stand the guy is because he stays home 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, because he is on Social Security Disability payments for his SUPPOSED "bad back", and so all he does is WATCH YOU and SPY ON YOU.
The guy is a chain smoker, and smokes like 2 to 3 packs a day, and everytime I am outdoors doing something like yard work, gardening, playing with my kids, washing the car, etc, etc, he always has to come out and stand there and smoke his cigarrette for 10 minutes and watch every little thing your doing!!!!
I also see him watching me and my family through his windows when he is INSIDE his house as well!!!! He stands right in front of the window watching every little thing we do outdoors!!!!!
Even if its something like bringing in grocerys or or taking the trash out, he has to come outside and STARE at you and WATCH you, while smoking his cigarettes!!!!!
I was told from the neighbor across the street from us when I first moved in 8 years ago that
"he is the EYES of the neighborhood". "He is ALWAYS watching EVERYBODY, to see what's going on and what they are doing", she told me.
His wife is just as bad, because she doesn't work either, and stays home
24/7, and she does the same thing as him. She doesn't smoke, but she stands in her window peeking through the blinds and/or curtains to watch what me or my kids are doing outside.
The other day when my kids were outside playing in the snow, she peeked through her curtains about 14 times in a 10 minute period, so that she could watch us to see what the kids were doing outside.
After 8 years of this, and them not planning on moving away, and us not planning on moving away, enough is enough.
Like I said, there is a 6 foot high spruce stockade fence on our property line seperating the 2 houses, but when the nosey jerk neighbor comes out to smoke his cigarrette out on the back porch, he can clearly see right over the fence and into our yard, because his back porch floor is about 3 feet off the ground, and he is albout 6 feet tall, so that gives him a 9 foot high "lookout" so to speak.
So we want to plant arbovitaes that will grow 9 feet tall or more to give us some privacy from this creep.
Unless someone can recommend something else FAST-GROWING and tall and bushy, that can be planted near a 6 foot high spruce stockade fence, that will provide privacy from these nosey neighbors.
ALSO, no, they can't see us over the 6 foot high stockade fence when they are standing in their yard or driveway, because the fence is taller then them. It's when either he is standing out on his back porch smoking his cigarette, because the floor of the porch is about 3 feet off the ground, or when him and his wife are inside on the 1st floor peeking through the blinds/curtains.
The houses on our street are 1920's "old style" Cape houses that have
2nd floors, BUT only have 2nd floor windows on ONE side of the house. Our Second floor windows, as well as his are on the right side of the 2 houses, so their 2nd floor windows cannot see into our backyard. But they can see into our backyard from their back porch, back stairs, 2 kitchen windows, and 2 living/dining room windows, because those windows are on their first floor, and face the right side of our house as well as our backyard. Their first floor windows are about 9-10 feet in the air, and so they can see right OVER the fence, and into our yard, driveway, etc.