I would keep the glass in and put stick on privacy film over it. You will get a neat result, you can get a huge range of patterns and colours (start your search on eBay for examples) and you won't lose your wind protection in Winter. Handy when having a BBQ in Summer too.

Hi Roger, With the pleached trees, I think your underplanting amps up the tropical look especially if you go with a magnolia that have the dark green upper leave and the bronze underside. You could just go for banana or palms - personally I think you might be right about the clumping bamboo becoming a bit dense. Regarding your 400mm retaining wall - citrus are shallow rooted and tend to have a root system that goes out to their drip line. Maybe if you put it in a corner you can use the corner to espalier it in conjunction with staking it to get upper stablility but I'm not sure how it'd go with the roots - but give it a go at $30-50 depending upon size it's not an huge amount if it doesn't do well - just dig it up (just watch the thorns) and give it to a friend - check out Daileys for varieties and maybe get in touch and see what they think, they might do them on a dwarf root stock - I've found them to be helpful in the past. i'd be reluctant to underplant any kind of citrus though - as they are shallow feeders.

I think any sort of fencing is going to give you privacy and cost is obviously going to be an issue. As it is a pool, I assume your country / state / city will have very strict pool regulations in relation to height ability to climb (to prevent children entering the area). Have you considered the smaller corrugated iron look - colour steel it can be very attractive when done right and then you can put a capping on the top. It will break the wind and can be colour matched to your other colours e.g. the house, garden etc.

I would suggest that you get professional advice from your council's building surveyor regarding the current (and future) regulations. It looks to me that the horizontal rails to your side boundary fence are on your neighbours side, which may make your boundary fence easy to climb over from the neighbours side. Your building surveyor will be able to confirm after an inspection, and you can discuss how the design and spacing of your additional vertical battens may overcome this risk. With the regulation of pool fencing becoming more regulated (with registration and inspection, of all pools in Victoria, and possibly other states, just around the corner), you are better off getting an inspection and professional advice on such an important issue, rather than the informal advice offered in this forum. Don't charge ahead and do what you have explained above, as you may be forced to take it all down and build a new fence, if you don't get the proper advice first. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls