Hedge Border Question

I live on a 1.8 acre lot next to a guy(nice guy) who manicures his lawn like a golf course. Currently there is nothing separating our lawns aside from the slight distinction of his "perfect" grass budding up next to my weed friendly yard. I have some rough sketches that show what I am dealing with. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, his lawn is on the south side of my property of which I was going to design a slight food forest that was going to favor the sun direction. I want to create a hedge of some sort that will block me from him mostly to keep his fertilized-pesticide practices away from my food but at the same time trying not to cause a problem and he call "the man" on me. Are there any recommendations on how I might deal with both the sun direction, certain hedges that I can manage pretty well that will benefit us both, maybe even inspire him to reconsider his golf course fixation ( he doesn't golf, hahaha) I trying to think of ways to keep leaves and others things from maybe blowing in on his property, though secretly I wish the weeds over there to heal his land.

Some kind of "fedge" (food hedge). Lots of threads here about it.

Justin Koenig wrote:Are there any recommendations on how I might deal with both the sun direction, certain hedges that I can manage pretty well that will benefit us both, maybe even inspire him to reconsider his golf course fixation

if you can put down a barrier to keep them from going ONTO his property Jerusalem artichokes are a wonderful hedge during summer months..they grow about 8' tall and will provide perfect privacy..but they'll die down to the ground in the winter if you have cold winter weather that is, and then you can dig them for food. You also will never dig them all unless you really work at it, so there will always be some coming back the following year.

they will however spread a bit so they might get on his property unless you put down a good barrier to stop them.

also other food bearing plants would be great..i LOVE black raspberries

If you are worried about his spraying, I would not plant any edibles as your hedge. Since he likes a formal look, I would go with an evergreen hedge such as boxwood if it will grow in your area. He still gets a nice view, it won't infringe on his property and you get a barrier. I see no point in aggrevating a neighbor, and if you work with him, perhaps he will see what things you are planting and will eventually 'see the light'.

Thanks for the great advice. It is my intention to be courteous to my neighbor and slowly demonstrate something better than a desert lawn and hope that it ripples through the rest of my street. But for now I am going to cure my soil, grow food, share, and hopefully improve on our community. I thought that maybe a hedge that was slightly low growing yet creates a sufficient barrier might lessen the chances of shading out some of my future fruit trees from my south sun