300m hedge help

thats the one! why is a squared hedge right? do you mean trimmed neatly and square? why is laurel the best choice? the park has beach and some dogwood (which i love so much) and lots of other stuff i dont know what it is and there is a little bit of laurel.

 

the hedge will be minimun of 16 meters away from the building and if it is only 4ft high, i dont think it will hide the listed building which is over 6m tall at the gutter level.
anyone agree/disagree? the planners wouldnt have accepted a hedge if the building would be hidden. i was thinking of a 6ft hedge but 4 ft would do.

 

have a look at this site ... may give you some ideas:

Planting A Hedge - Get Free Tips & Advice Now - Learn How To Plant A Hedge

 

It is such a beautiful setting that it would be a pity to spoil the look with some unsuitable hedge.
For me old fashioned shrubs/plants that you see in old paintings (but i couldn't tell you the name of them) or in renowned gardens would look best.


Failing that just take inspiration from the garden in Walsall:
Tony Newton creates garden masterpiece in West Midlands | Mail Online

 

whatever hedge you choose, first pass it by the planning department, as they have very strict rules and guidelines as regards this property... so check first with them before buying the shrubs:

http://www.north-ayrshire.gov.uk/Do...tPlan/EglintonCountryParkDevelopmentBrief.pdf

snip:

Boundaries, Landscape and Open Space
A defensible boundary should be created to define and separate private space from the public Country Park. While
identifiable separation is required this should not amount to visual closure on the north and South-East edges of
the site where iron (or an alternative metal) railings shall be positioned. This could be mounted on a low wall. On
the north and South- West edges the existing boundaries may be utilised, reinforced by hedging where required.
The open aspect of the development in front of the principal elevation of the Stables should be landscaped in a
manner that it blends with the existing landscape. The Garden History Society, Historic Scotland, Scottish Natural
Heritage and NAC Education and Grounds Maintenance will be consulted on landscaping proposals.
There shall be no individual private open space available for the residents of the Stables. A shared area to allow a
drying area and bin stores shall be included in the layout.
There shall be no fences or walls within the site and hedges or railings shall define internal boundaries.
The position within the Country Park means that the Council will not expect the development to make specific​

provision for open space and children's play facilities within the site.

seems they like the idea of a wall with metal railings? ....

reason I am saying that the hedge needs to be approved by someone on the planning board is that I am currently planning to landscape a grade A listed property that they are still renovating .... the front of the garden has huge trees that create heavy shade and the grass does not grow (it is thick green moss)

I suggested to get tree surgeons in to remove a few and it is not allowed ...

 

that document is out of date, trust me when i say that i am the foremost expert on this development. ive been involved for over 13 years. and i know what is allowed or not allowed, the hedge has been approved. yew or beech is allowed, other options need to be cleared with planners but laurel will nor be a problem neither will blackthorn, hornbeam, hawthorn.

what im trying to find out here is an evergreen solution and something that will look good instantly wether it looks like a hedge or not. to my eye, evergreens look good instantly wether they are small or big doesnt matter. whereas beech looks horrible until it is a proper hedge and even then i dont like it in winter. ive been offered bareroot yew at a very good price but someone suggested you cant have bareroot evergreens, does any one have any advice?

 

dim, when you say you are not from the uk do you mean you are living here now or have you never lived here? where are you from?
thanks

 

I've just checked the website of a reputable supplier I sometimes use, and they do yew as bare roots, so I guess its fine.

Its not going to be an instant hedge though. However, if cash flow allows, you can in fact buy ready grown established hedges which come on the back of lorry and and you just drop them into a trench, tuck them in, and hey presto.

If you are going for the more cost effective bare root option, you need to get your skates on. We're right at the back end of this winter's bare root season. Within a couple of weeks, any reputable supplier will stop supplying bare root trees, because once the weather starts to pick up and the trees start to wake up, the chances of survival for bare root trees starts to drop drastically. I.e a reputable supplier will only supply trees bare root when they are dormant.

 

yes i understand about the timing thats why i came on here. im too late to do anything until november this year because the area of the hedge is not cleared yet and it would involved lots of other factors to be ready so it cant be done till later in the year. i dont want the hedge to hide the building.

 

who was the supplier? are you allowed to say on the forum? if not pm me
thanks

 

Check this site (Laurel Cherry Hedge). From this page you can navigate the options. It's a few miles up the road from me and is basically wholesale. Worth a phone call as their estimator reckons 376 Laurel (as an example) for 300metres.
Laurel (as an example) is evergreen, reasonably fast growing and 60/80cm bareroot plants are £1.80.
Nearly 400 plants should get you a reasonable discount...........

 

If you're looking that far ahead, then an early order should be worth a better discount.

 

These chaps (and/or chapesses):

http://www.hedgenursery.co.uk/

They are not always the cheapest. You have to shop around, because I find that of several suppliers, different ones are cheapest for different plants, so there is no overall cheapest if you know what I mean.

 

I started answering your post, and then the posts following that, and then discovered that the thread has had a lot of activity since my last post, so these are answered in the order they were seen, so earlier answers may be contradicted by later ones, but I ain't going to rewrite it to make it right - sorry!

Quercus ilex - Holm Oak - might be worth considering. Its recommended for sites near the sea (I presume it doesn't mind a salty-breeze). It makes a pretty, and somewhat unusual, (evergreen) hedge. Its reasonably "formal" (I have a picture if you would like to see one)

"dont know the pH but i dont have a problem in altering this near the hedge area."

Not easy to alter the pH of soil. Do you have Rhododendrons and Azaleas growing in people's gardens near you? That's a good indicator of whether you have Acid soil, or not. Most hedges don't need Acid soil though.

"evergreen or decidious, whats your advice? will bare twigs look good in winter?"

If you want a hedge you can't see through in Winter then an evergreen variety would be best, but they will be more prone to being "rocked" by strong winter-winds.

Deciduous varieties like Beech and Hornbeam keep their (brown) leaves in Winter - in all but the coldest weather. So they are a half-way-house, and provide reasonable privacy, but not as much as an evergreen hedge; they also provide nice Autumn colours.

Beech is not good on heavy soil and/or soil with poor drainage (Hornbeam will be better for that, but doesn't hold its Winter-leaves quite as well as Beech)

"height should be 4 to 5ft"

Probably best not to choose something very vigorous then!!. For example Leylandii would be a nightmare to control at only 5' tall.

"re: hedge look, did you look at the building and its setting? i think its pretty self explanatary."

I didn't see any photographs earlier in the thread - did I miss something?

"the parks dept planted some beech "twigs" one year ago and they still look like beech "twigs"
thats whats putting me off."

Quite a lot of hedge varieties "thicken-up" best if they are pretty much cut down to the ground for the first few years (well, I may be exaggerating, but removing 1/3rd of the top growth is common, and for speed just taking a hedge trimmer and cutting them back to one-foot tall is one way to achieve that.)

If you can pander to your hedge you can hurry it up, but for bulk-planting that is not feasible and if the hedge plants are left to get on with it by themselves, particularly if they have competition from weeds and/or don't get proper irrigation in the first few years, it can easily double the time it takes for the hedge to get established. I expect the parks Department a) don't have unlimited funds!! and b) are not in too much of a hurry to get a "mature" finished result,.

Newly planted hedges tend to take the first year to sulk, so they don't put on much growth, but after that you should get about 12" per year (depends on variety obviously). You need to let the hedge grow a foot taller than final height then cut it to the height you want (and at that point the tips will still be "skinny").

So if you wanted a 5' hedge and started with 1' plants (as a hypothetical example) it would be around 7 years before you had a solid hedge that looked like it had been there "forever". But you'd have a smart hedge after about 4 years.

If you planted 3' tall plants you'd have a good looking hedge 2 years later, and it would thicken up by 5 years. I've got Beech here that we planted 3 years ago using plants that were about 3' - 4' tall. Its now 8' tall in places, and the bottom 4' - 5' is thick enough that you can't really see through it.

"unless you are £minted and 300 metre hedge will be costiy if you have no patience and you want large plants ."

Companies like "Instant Hedge" will provide you with hedges that look like they have been there "forever" but they charge about £200 per metre! bare root hedging plants e.g. 50cm (20in) tall bare-root Hornbeam are about 40p each (for 1,000-off). You'd need about 3 per metre for single-row, and 5 per metre for double-row (which will make a thicker hedge).

"i priced beech at about £1000 at 5 plants per meter double row, staggered. i would happily pay upto £5k for something evergreen, im also looking for brighter colours in spring/summer/autumn."

300M x 5 per metre = 1,500 plants.

Ashridge trees sell Beech at £756 for 1,500 at 40-60cm, £954 at 60/80cm. Their tallest, bare rooted, is 150/175cm which would be £6,570 - but I reckon you could reduce the number of plants by 20% at least if planting them that big. I would still recommend a double-row for Beech, even at 150/175cm tall, but you could go for a single row and 2-and-a-bit-per-metre

"i would like the hedge to be quite square in shape to match the building"

My advice would be to stick to single-variety and something conventional that can be planted trimmed "square" to look smart. Yew would be the smartest, but its the most expensive too. Box would make a nice formal hedge, but you won't be able to buy plants taller than 40/60cm affordably, and even then they'll be nearly £2 each.

You could have Copper Beech if you want something that looks a bit "different". It holds it leaves like ordinary Beech (they will be brown, like ordinary beech, during the winter)

A compromise would be Thuja plicata atrovirens. That will clip to a smart evergreen hedge, it does not grow as insanely quickly as Leylandii - probably the best compromise where you want Yew but can't afford it

EDIT: I was answering your questions in the order I saw them, I've now got to the bit where you ask about "western red cedar" - that's Thuja plicata, so answers that question! Get the "atrovirens" variety though, its an "improved" strain. (unless you want a Golden one or somesuch)

You'll also need to budget for leaky-hose to irrigate the hedge, and weed suppressing membrane (and perhaps some bark chips to cover it so it looks smart) to a) prevent weeds growing and b) keep the moisture in the soil.

"whats the advantages of hawthorn over beech?"

None. It is good for making a fence to keep animals in 'coz its prickly. It might keep yobs out! but it won't make a smart hedge, and will often go bare at the bottom. Its cheap, and robust though.

"can this mixed hedge be cut into a formal square shape?"

I don't think so. All the varieties grow at different rates, so it will look nice the day after it is cut, but the rest of the time it will be 6's-and-7's. Its great for a "country hedge" that looks "natural" (and because of that you might get a grant to plant it ...)

"can any hedge be cut into a formal square shape?
im thinking of a hedge maze, pruned to perfection, what would be best for that?"

Some are better than others. Plants with large leaves - like Laurel, Holly and Photinia - are difficult to get that really smart look. Yew is the best - but it takes longer (although not "forever" as many people thing) and costs a lot in the first place.

"hawthorn wasnt much cheaper than beech"

Where you been looking? Ashridge trees would sell you 1,500 40/60cm hawthorn plants for
£414 - compare with Beech price above

"how often would a high maintenance hedge required to be trimmed and how long would it take one man to do?
could one man do it in one day every 2nd month? if so that would be 6 times per year and cost about £600 which isnt too bad.
"

No need to cut it more than twice a year, and mostly they are only done once a year (but will look a bit shaggy shortly before being cut). Faster growing hedges need cutting more often ... yew will be fine with cutting once a year, Thuja might need twice a year.

You can cut more often than that, if yo want it to look smart at all times, but then you are cutting less off so the job should be done more quickly (and with less clearing up). I would be surprised if a contractor with good equipment couldn't cut a 300M x 5' tall hedge in two days - easy enough to phone someone in Yellow Pages up and get a quote :thumb:

"i have been offered yew hedging at what seems to be a very reasonable price and its 4ft tall plants. i was led to believe that was either too expensive or not possible due to the lack of growth at the bottom of the plant, any comments on that?
the man at the nursery said i would need about 350-400 planting about 3ft apart and the are 4ft tall. does that sound feasible?"

I would think that 4' plants would need to be planted 2-per-metre (you definitely do NOT need a double-row for Yew), but you might get away with 1-and-a-bit-per-metre. I would expect 4' tall Yews to be £20 each (if you can get them cheaper than that please let me know who from!)

"i have been offered bareroot yew hedging, is this a good idea ? im not sure if it will work because its evergreen. what do you think?"

Definitely plant bare root if you can, it will establish faster. But you must plant between November and end of March (maybe a bit later in Scotland perhaps ??) after that you will need to plant pot-grown plants (and irrigate them more ...)

For 4' plants they should be rootballed (wrapped in Hessian) not bare root (when they told you "bare root" they may well have meant "rootballed" as the two are kinda-the-same, compared to "pots", but it would be best to check.. Yews 4', and taller, I have only ever sourced "potted" - although they have been lifted from the field, and potted, for convenience of transport, so they were in effect "rootballed"

 

Nah, its only 1,500 plants and hedge suppliers quote 1,000-off pricing for most things, and 10,000-off for some. This is a "regular order". However, haggle if you like - I'm just sceptical that you'll get anything off. I would expect a guarantee of replacements for any that die though.