Privacy / anti-vandal shrubs

Hi, I have a 5 ft stone wall surrounding my property.. the wall cavity is currently filled with soil essentially creating a tall vertical bed.

The bed itself is probably about 4ft deep and about 10inches wide. I wish to put some shrubs in the bed to give a bit more privacy and ideally stop people easily climbing over the wall. I tried conifers about 2 years ago but they never really took root and died.

Can someone suggest some good shrubs/flowers that would work in this bed and things I need to consider?

 

Couple of questions

Full sun or shade ??

It must dry out very quickly ?
What type off stone wall is it , modern ie brick or old as in cobbles large stones as in a dry stone wall .

Have you a opertunity to say put a drip hose in to water

I have had a think about this one either you could grow climing roses up the wall or go down what works in nature I think a good plant would be gorse lovely yellow flowers and covered in prickles and would put up with the harshe conditions

Look forward to what others may suggest

Spruce

 

Shrubs are one option and certainly a dense, prickly hedge forming rose would do the job. But if you're a little more adventurous Id recommend an orbital defence platform or if cash and space is limited, an automated pair of gun turrets with an infra-red trigger mechanism.

Because the Italians and the Brits have recently been shamed out of selling to Gadaffi they should have gaps in their production schedules. They could probably fit in a small personal order.

 

There are some small varieties of Berberis (Barberry) that would be pretty unpleasant to clamber over as they are very spikey - good foliage, flowers and berries too.

As Spruce said the problem would be drying out very quickly.

 

Thanks... Answers below:
1. It's pretty much in full sun.
2. Current soil in there is pretty bad and yes very dry.
3. large old cobbles *similar* to a drystone wall, limestone I think.
4. Can do regular hosing but would not be ideal, probably don;t have the option to put an auto-watering option in either.

 

gorse is hideous,a firehazard and a weed do not plant gorse

 

Melinda is spot on !:yess: I will also have what she's drinking :happydance:

 

Leaky-hose along the top of the wall? Then just connect up your hose for a while whenever they need water and leave it running for an hour or so (put a cup under the hose to see how much water is coming out, but in our case water pressure is not very high, and the hose doesn't "leak" very fast!)

 

a leaky hose does sound good. Pyracantha can be a bit slow to get going, rosa rugosa is get as a barrier hedge, the flowers smell graet & you can make wine from the hips or you could try gooseberries I don't know too much about their growing conditions but they're definately spikey and tasty!

 

:D

I was concerned I would have to post an IM JOKING disclaimer!