Northeast Gardening: Help- need creative ideas!, 1 by Noreaster

Noreaster wrote:
A month or so ago, the neighbor directly behind us decided to cut down all the trees in his backyard along our fence, pretty much. Before, there was always a dense line of tree foliage there in the late Spring and Summer which provided shade and privacy. I'm primarily concerned about the far right corner which will now get a fair amount of sun- morning through about one is my guess. The reason that bothers me is that the hosta I have there are now getting their shade from the trees in my yard- the ones in front of them. So they are going to be inclined to lean towards the back neighbors direction. I don't really want to be looking at hosta backsides! I'm hoping when everything fully leafs out things will right themselves, but I'm nervous.

A perhaps bigger issue for me is the loss of privacy feeling. We now have a full view of the house next door to the backyard neighbor's house. This house was never visible in the summer before and it just really, really bugs me. I really want to stick something in that corner, along the fence, that will screen that off from my view as much as possible.

Here are the issues- this is a very narrow space between our fence and a large oak, not to mention my 3 large hosta which I can't possibly move. I had put a small bed up there last year along the fence and there is solid ledge under it....I'll have to modify that bed and add more soil if I'm to plant anything up there. So what can I put there that is both skinny at the bottom and fuller at the top, and doesn't need a ton of soil to grow in? The fence is four feet high and I'd like whatever I put there to be a couple feet taller than that, at least. As I said, it's probably going to get a good half day of full sun, then shade from the oak when the sun passes over head (if it ever decides to shine again here).

I'm also nervous that the guy has opened up his yard so much that deer might now be tempted to hop the fence back there. They've never attempted our taller wooden fence in the front, but the chain link along the back is lower...and all those hosta are just waiting...I'm seriously tempted to get some black plastic netting and stick it up there, regardless of how it looks.

I thought about a vine, but don't know if a half day is enough sun, and it seems like many of them have poison fruits, which is out of the question with my dog.

Oh, and did I mention that I need something that will do the trick as fast as possible???

I just don't know what to do! Any thoughts or ideas would be much appreciated. Here are some pics of the problem corner from some different angles. The red mark is the general spot where some sort of screen needs to go.

First pic is the house I want to not see. This is the view from the deck when I walk out the back door. I have a nice sized Japanese Maple that goes in the big pot on the rock, so much of the house will be blocked from view when I put that in there. (blocked from view when I stand on the deck, anyway)