I've been busy since this thread started. I gave up on the hedge idea and opted instead to plant two Lombardy Poplars in front of the key windows on the side where the hedge would have been. I put a Spiral Curls Willow in the front also, and just today I planted two 8' columnar Arborvitaes in front of my key windows on the front of the house.
I had already dug up 10 hideous globe-shaped evergreen bushes which were there.
Landscaping has been fun. Hours and hours in the sun!
Asters and heteropappus still in sprout form in the beds, blue fescue clumps framing the trees, black mulch, etc.
Now for the backyard....
Weeping Black Alaskan Cedar, Crimson Frost Birch, and a whole line of Lombardy Poplars to come.
Cheers and thanks for all the advice, Noel
no method, no guru, no teacher