Landscaping privacy ideas for city dweller can you help ?

Question:I live in a smallish town in So OR and on a city lot in an average tract home area. We have very strict fence building codes,nothing over 3 ft high across the front of the property nor 20 feet back from the sidewalk, and then it can be 5 ft tall.
I have little money, but I am sick to death of neighbors gawking into my yard because they have nothing better to do. I want more privacy just so they won't feel free to judge me ??? Any good shrubs that grow fast in zone 7, photinia is the fast growing shrub of choice here and also, if I could take cuttings off something I can raise plants well, I have a green thumb. Landscapers, any help ? I don't think the city will bother me with tall shrubs,only fences ?

Answers:
Until you can figure out a more permanent fence or hedge, go big annuals. Sunflowers, Castor beans, ornamental corn (not the ornamental ear type but the ones with variegated or colored leaves), amaranth and vines. I recently completed a garden at a daycare and I used twine to make a "Spiderman" web. Last week the kids planted "Scarlet Runner beans" under the web, a huge success! RScott