Mixed hedge ideas

Evening all.

In a few weeks (when bare root season opens), I'll be starting a new hedge for the front boundary of my house.

I'm not bothered about it being fully evergreen (hence waiting for bare root season) but nor am I averse to sticking some evergreens in there.

I'm looking for ideas please, about what species to use.

The ultimate goal is for the hedge to be about 5ft high and fairly dense. I'd like it to reach that height quite quickly, but I understand that it won't bush up that quickly.

I want to use more than one species, to give a countryside feel, and although the local kids can at times be mildly annoying, I don't want to skewer them with 6 inch needle like thorns as they walk past.

Oh, and preferably native, but not essential.

Any ideas?

I've thought about a mix of:

Crab apple
Hawthorn
Hazel
Dogwood
Either Holly or Spotted Laurel for winter colour
Maybe some Box
Perhaps Honeysuckle to ramble through it all.

The hedge is to be about 15ft long, and should be able to tolerate being clipped into a fairly narrow footprint (about a foot to 18 inches wide).

 

Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Hazel, Oak, Holly, Rowan, Guelder Rose, Field/Dog Rose, Ivy, Field Maple, Crab Apple, Privet would make a very diverse hedge that is for the most part native hedging.

This website offers lots of info on hedging ideas and plants;

Hedging Plants, Young Trees, Shrubs and Conifers from Buckingham Nurseries

:thumb:

 

Looks like a very good choice Dave

I'd add a Medlar, Wild Service Tree, Guelder Rose, Wild Pear & a Dog Rose. But thats just me.

 

Guess what happened to this thread? After initially posting it up, and then me later clicking the 'new posts' link, this one was gone. I figured nobody had replied, which is fair enough, but then I found it in my 'subscribed threads' list

Anyway, strange bugs aside, thanks for the ideas.

I'm going to put together a list at the weekend, and get the trees ordered.

I have another question though. In the growth rate guides on the suppliers websites, they list things like Hawthorn, Hazel and even wild roses and growing about 1ft per year. How do they figure that out? I'm up in the north, and even up here stuff grows faster than that.

 

nothing wrong with the concept and idea .... however, our local bowling club has a hedge of mixed shrubs ....

somehow, it does not appeal to me .... things just look wrong, even if well trimmed ...

I prefer a hedge that contains all of the same type of shrub, but then, that's my personal preferance

 

In our neighbourhood, most of the hedges are privet. There's the odd exception, but most of those are all single species. The effect is to make the whole neighbourhood very samey.

I already have the garden police passing judgement on my efforts (mostly silently - but I see their looks of disapproval), so for that reason alone I want to break the mold.

Besides, I've never seen anything living in or near a privet hedge, and that just seems wrong. Gardens should have things crawling, buzzing, fluttering and chirping in them. Colours should never be the same day in, day out. Mixed hedges are the way to go.

 

point taken ....

however, in my opinion, if you plant several shrubs close together so that they fill the space, it looks good

but as soon as you turn it into a hedge, by trimming/pruning the tops so that they form a formal hedge, it just looks odd (in my opinion)