Living fence/hedge advice (zone 8a/7b Delaware)

tl;dr I’d like to put a living fence/hedgerow between my house and my neighbor’s, where I used to have a bunch of big trees and am looking for advice. I’m in zone 8a/7b, in southern coastal Delaware.

A few years back, I had to have a big row of leyland cypress trees taken out. They were planted way too close together 20-something years ago, long before I moved in. They were thin at the bottom, and getting really top-heavy up high – a few of them were starting to lean and we could see the root ball bulging up in the ground. So out they came. I had the stumps ground down but you can obviously still tell where they were.

We thought about putting in a fence but that involves a.) getting the HOA involved, and b.) a lot of money. Instead, what I’d like to do is put in some kind of living fence or hedge row between our houses for a little privacy – mostly in the summer time. I’d like it to be something that can look nice-ish/tidy-ish, produce something useful (fruit, vegetable, nuts, etc) or be medicinal, and (obviously) something native. I don’t want to plant anything that will grow as tall as those leyland cypress, but I’d like something that can get 6ft+. I don’t mind using wire or trellising or whatever to help it grow to a desirable shape.

I’ve seen some really cool pictures online of willow fences, but I don’t want to mess with willow for several reasons. But I’d like something I can weave and keep tidy like that – at least somewhat. Is that an unrealistic idea/expectation?

Here’s a picture of the space

Processing img potzi5pmm7we1…

This photo faces north, so the long part of a hedge/fence would face west and get quite a bit of direct sun from the afternoon until sunset.

Eventually, I want to rip out most of our current landscaping and replace with native and edible plants… but this is a good starting place.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!