The secret garden

Hi guys

I have joined this site as I am clueless when it comes to anything resembling gardening. So I am not going to make any bones about it- I am hoping to pick your brains if that is okay.

I am starting to create a luxury campsite, have done the landscaping, but now need to plant shrubs and trees.

To put you in the picture, it is half an acre of land, of which only a very small amount will be for tents.

It is encircled by trees and ferns- so the whole thing needs to be thickened and made more evergreen- to provide sound insulation and a solid hedge- to protect from the local farm.

I would like to create an 'orchard' of sorts, with hopefully cherry and some plum trees - but would like to ensure colour for the maximum amount of months of the year.

Also would like to have denser areas like the 'secret garden' to explore in

Problem is I am asking a lot by wanting all of this asap!

Particularly the deep hedges need to be established by spring (for sound and vision purposes)
Am looking to plant the trees soon also (maybe some younger ones dotted around one or two more mature ones)

I am sorry for all of the info, but I feel entirely at the deep end and hope to tap into some of your expertise about what is best to plant/quickest growing/cheapest places to buy/things to avoid etc etc

I look forward to any pearls of wisdom, advice, or thoughts

Many thanks
Joe

 

a few photos will help .... sounds like a nice place and project

 

Hello j-r and welcome to GC.

I'm sure that some of our members will be able to offer advice, but as *Dim* mentions a few pics. would help. Also where are you located? - this would have a bearing in plant recommendations, and are you subject to any special planning regulations.

a-a

 

thanks for the replies. In terms of planning, I am presently looking into it. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Located in Carmarthenshire SW Wales

I only have a photo from a few weeks ago, but it will give you a flavour:

 

hello j-r, I agree - photos and basic info about where you are, brief description of site etc would help. However, I do think that you may have unrealistic expectations if you are wanting an established shelter belt by next Spring! I like your ideas though, but think you might need to accept that you could certainly do your planting this Autumn but would need to allow a few years to see hedges and trees of any size. Putting in bigger plants is really expensive and not always worth the cost..the younger hedging plants seem to grow away faster, suffer less losses and after a few years will catch up in size anyway.

Put up some photos and I'm sure you'll get lots of advice!

 

If that's the area where they're going to be camping, it'll look great once you clear the middle area and flatten it off!

 

it has now been cleared and has 2 terraced areas


I see what you mean by the hedges/trees, just looking into the most cost effective and quick barrier at the moment

 

hedge ....

look at clumping bamboo, but use a root barrier aswell
grows fast, but maybe not as fast as you are expecting .... it is also not cheap

 

Don't you think though Dim, bamboo won't look right in this farmland setting? Something like holly (if you're after evergreen) or hawthorn, blackthorn etc. would screen the campsite in an unobtrusive way and give privacy to the campert too. Maybe some bamboo might be used in an inner secret garden area more effectively? It would be a shame to end up with one of those naff looking camp sites that stick out like a sore thumb.
I see where you are coming from, thinking about speed of getting a 'hedge' though. Trouble is, sometimes you just can't find a perfect quick fix.
Looking at the photo....which didn't seem to be there when I wrote before??! there is already a good start of boundary trees. Difficult to judge by this picture, but it might be worth considering cutting back a bit to encourage bushier growth, or laying if more appropriate and then adding some similar hedging plants. If the existing trees are blackthorn or hawthorn, you could add a few Guelder rose, (Viburnum opulus) and spindle (Euonymus alatus) and some wild roses etc...all relatively cheap bought in bulk from hedging suppliers.
The only quick way to provide immediate privacy and wind protection would be grading the land into an outer burm, making a few inner sheltered pockets for tent pitches...pretty drastic and all dependant on any planning restrictions!!

 

I know what you are saying Julie, however ....

1/2 an acre is 2000 sq meters .... to create a campsite plus a secret garden and have giant trees and leylandii type monster hedges plus a fruit orchard and still have camping sites is difficult for me to comprehend and visualize when judging the size of land

only solution I could think of was a bamboo hedge somewhere along the boundary, as it grows fast, is evergreen and looks good right throughout the year

all trees planted now will take years to mature even if you plant 6 foot specimins ....

then, to make this campsite commercially viable, you would need to have several sites for members to pitch tents ...

campers would want some space and privacy perhaps some abulution blocks / toilets and fresh running water, a BBQ area may be needed aswell? ....

then there should be an area where bins are provided, and depending on how the camp works and where it is situated, perhaps parking space for cars?

I used to go camping from an early age in remote areas of south africa and am trying to visualise a camping site with all that has been requested in such a small camping site ... 2000 sq meters is not a lot for all the criterea that has been specified by J-Robi (unless I'm missing something?)

 

I don't think its going to be possible to get a good dense hedge in by spring, unless you have a bottomless pit of money. You can buy established, ready grown hedges by the metre, but when I've looked they tend to cost about £40 per metre. Probably less if you buy a lot, but that's still expensive.

How about this for a plan:

Bare root season is almost upon us. This is the time of year (november to february) when you can buy young trees cheap as chips in bulk. Of course it takes them time to establish, but its a cheap way to fill a large area or establish long hedgerows.

Get some slower growing trees with a dense habit, like hawthorn (about as cheap as it gets), and maybe blackthorn (but beware, once established blackthorn sends runners out and pops up where you least expect it).

Get a load of treetreetreetree apple trees too. Again cheap as chips in bare root season, and they are pretty for most of the year.

Maybe consider hazel too, which grows tall fairly quickly, but isn't so bushy.

How about some Elderberry trees too. Again cheap as bare root saplings, and establish well. Pretty in summer with the fragrant clusters of white flowers, then later with the deep red/black berries.

That lot will give you the bulk of your hedges and screening, for not much money, and they are all natives so wont look out of place. The downside is they wont flower for a couple of years.

Chuck in some silver birch and rowans, not so many of these, maybe get more established pot grown trees. Silver birch is a stunning tree, and its white shiny bark really stands out against the rest of the shrubs. Rowan is pretty too, with lovely bright red berries in late summer until the birds finish them.

To bulk out your new hedges, chuck in some honeysuckles. We have a native one in the UK, but I'd suggest you look at the many cultivars that are available. Similar enough in appearance to the native to not look out of place, but with longer flowering periods. Let these just ramble along the floor and find their own way to the sky, just as they do in the wild. Maybe some wild roses too, for the pretty flowers followed by bright red hips.

And if you want some really fast screening to screen it off, consider a hybrid willow 'fedge', which is a cross between a hedge and fence. You buy the willow cuttings cheap as chips, no roots on them, just sticks, and shove them in the ground. About 90% will root and grow in their first year. You push the sticks in just a few inches apart, at a 45 degree angle, criss-crossing each other and loosely weave them together.

Have a look at this:

Willow 'Fedges'

 

thank you for the informative replies, great to get so many different thoughts and ideas

Just to clarify a few points:

Yes it does have a well established hedge, with some blackthorn and some hazel, but there are lots of gaps that need blocking, plus one side of the field is mostly bramble/fern hedge than anything else (albeit quite nice and high). Have seen silver birch trees seem to be a fair price i bought in bulk, do these create good hedges? not too keen on planting hawthorn or blackthorn

In terms of the size, yes it is only small and I am probably asking too much. But just to clarify, this will be an exclusive site, ie only one family at a time. So hopefully at the lower part of the field there will be an orchard of sorts, then a range of shrubs and plants elsewhere, love these:

Here are a couple of other photos to try to give you guys a bit more of a feel for the place. Any thoughts and ideas are extremely appreciated

 

I agree with clueless re. ideas above for boundary planting. The willow fedges might be a useful way of providing screening within the campsite. Also, a lovely way to make a natural arbour for sitting in etc. I've used willow a lot for screening and seperating areas in gardens Wonderful Willow! | Flickr - Photo Sharing! and love the speed with which you can achieve results. Also, you can usually find someone who'll let you cut your own 1 year growths, put them in by February and they root easily enough. You do need to weave in new shoots for the first few years and then trim once a year after that ofcourse.

 

thanks for the replies

I have booked onto a willow weaving course

My concern is that willow is not evergreen, so it will thin out and not be an effective hedge

Is that a valid concern or am I overly worrying?

 

Hi j robi . just a couple of thoughts .Re evergreens - Will u be expecting there to be much use in the winter ? Holly ? Don't put it anywhere near the camping area unless they r spikeless . They r evergreen but they will shed leaves and the fallen leaves r nasty , ask anyone who has cleared them up without gloves ! Anything that grows rampantly in one season is going to continue to do so and is going to need controlling . If u plant bamboo on your boundary with the farm....u might find yourself very unpopular with your neighbour if it gets out into his fields : )
It does seem a shame to obscure the veiw across the fields and of the surrounding countryside completely . Can I suggest crocus , colchicums and cyclamen under the tree .