Hedge advice

Hi all

I am thinking of planting a hedge and I would like some advice on what would give me the fastest growth and best finish.

The hedge is going in the front garden between mine and next door and it is about a 15ft length and ideally 6ft high.

Thanks in advance. :thumb:

 

How much maintenance do you want to give it Pip?

 

Anything but Leylandii! Your neighbour will come to hate you, should that be your choice! Glad to see you intend to keep it to 6 foot legal height too.

I know its a slower grower, but I love beech hedges. They grow wonderfully dense and lush, go a wonderful colour in winter and keep their leaves. You could also plant alternate green and copper beech for a really stunning effect.

 

Hi Pip.
Instead of Beech, which is liable to suffer as the climate changes, I would recommend Hornbeam, Carpinus betulus. I has a similar leaf and characteristics and will fare much better. I planted a Hornbeam hedge for a client a couple of years go and it has now bushed out and is about four feet tall. Bare root "whips" are available for planting now. Dig a trench about three feet wide, put plenty of organic material in the bottom and plant the whips in a zigzag pattern 12 -15" apart. This will give a nice substantial hedge. Although the leaves turn brown in winter, they stay on for a long time, creating interest and a habitat for overwintering beneficial insects. However much you're tempted, please don't plant Leylandii!
Chris

 

Either privet, semi evergreen, easy to maintain and highly scented flowers. Or Thuja plicata atrovirens, a fairly fast growing conifer. Easy to look after. Needs less maintenance than Leylandii, has aromatic foliage and does not go brown in the centre.:gnthb:

 

Escalonia would be worth considering, Not quite as fast as privet but evergreen and with atractive small pink flowers.

 

Thanks all

As little maintenance as possible Lillipop :thumb:

 

Hi Pip,

So a leyllandii is out then perhaps hee hee-although if properly looked after it can`t really go wrong for privacy and appearance and speed of growth

I personally would use a mixed hedge of hawthorn, holly, hornbeam and beech( going for one of the copper/purple ones), and bridal wreath(but only because it`s a favouite plant of mine) with perhaps a seagull rose trained through all of that. Beautiful, fragrant and lively with plenty for the birds to eat and the eye to enjoy.

By the way Merry Christmas Pip.

 

sounds like the type of thing I'm after. Looking for an interesting 3ft hedge, for a shadey north facing garden to run along the road in a rural village.........would this work? or parhaps some other suggestions.

 

Is it in full or partial shade BigBaddad? - like your name by the way :D

 

full shade. about 6m from the front of my house, north facing

 

I'm sure there are many better alternatives, but here's what grows wild in the shadier, cooler patch of my little piece of land in the countryside:

Elder - very fast growing, and sometimes used to help fill out a hedge, but probably unsuitable for a hedge if you used it alone.

Wild roses - Again, helps fill it out but not much good alone

Hazel - Fairly fast, about 2 ft per year, grows more or less straight upwards though.

Blackthorn - Good hedge plant, except you have to watch out for baby Blackthorns appearing around the parent tree, sometimes several feet away.

 

For shade, I can think of Aucuba japonica - (Spotted laurel), Skimmia, Cornus Alba -(dogwood), Sarcococca, Mahonia, Fatshedera, Leucothoe, Osmanthus and willows. You might get away with Eleagnus as well.

 

Pyracantha does well in shade. So does shrub honeysuckle. Plus any laurel, privet, box or yew.

Back to the great beech debate. If you want beech, plant it. It holds its leaves better in the winter than hornbeam does and it will probably last the next 50 years. The concern with beech and global warming was that it would struggle in all that dry weather we have been getting. Next door got some really nice beech hedge plants delivered last week from Ashridge Trees - you can find them here

Good luck

 

"Next door got some really nice beech hedge plants delivered last week from Ashridge Trees"

Mine came from Ashridge too. I was well pleased with the plants, and the service.

I'd better phone them up and make arrangements for my commission - its not the first time I've said how pleased I was ...