Options for narrow Sides of houses ?

Sand meaning you are in WA?

I presume you will have a perimeter path round the house -these are usually 900 mm or a meter wide - this leaves you with 1 meter which is easily enough to plant small shrubs - obviously make sure they will not grow too big or spread too wide but there are many plants which will fit in such a space - or put a trellis against the fence and grow creepers up it - this is what we did in the narrow space outside our kitchen and dining areas - much better than looking thru the window at bare fence - we have a Jasmine and a Happy Wanderer but these do need sun - if the area is very shady you can’t go past Red Riding Hood or one of its variations, we have them growing in the shade under our pergola.

I forget exactly what type of Jasmine this is but grows very quickly and flowers profusely. I love looking out my side window.

Width is not an issue, clipping is going to be an essential anyway in a narrow space. By definition a shrub grows as wide as it does high. be the master of the garden though and you tell the shrub what you want it to do clip it the width that suits you It isn't time consuming or hard.

Have a search there are many threads on this topic.

we have 1.2M on one side and 1.8M on the other . I have decided to concrete the sides ,this is also good for the slab of the house as per BCA recommendations that no watering or plants should be within 1.5M of the house.