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Hi all,
I'm new to this site and to gardening(my first garden)
There are no plants, shrubs down left side of garden, just fencing and lawn.
Any ideas what to plant along fence which is neighbour friendly, small trees, evergreen etc
thanks.

 

How sunny does it get there? Also what's the soil like, does it get soggy and stay soggy after rain, or does it dry out really quickly etc?

My personal favourite evergreen shrub would be good old Rosemary. Looks nice, smells gorgeous, is as tough as old boots, and of course has lots of uses in the kitchen as well as just being a nice plant in itself.

 

Hi,
it gets most of the afternoon sun, the soil drys out fairly quickly.
Is rosemary good for hedging.
Thanks.

 

The only place I've ever seen Rosemary used as an actual hedge was when on holiday in Menorca one time, but obviously Rosemary grows faster there because its warmer and sunnier than it is here. In the UK I doubt it would make a good hedge on its own.

Are you planning on replacing the fence with a hedge? Or how about keeping the fence and growing climbers up up? You could grow beans up the fence (if you make some arrangements for them to grab on), then you get a productive garden while it still looks nice, although in winter it would be bare. Sweet peas are also lovely for their appearance and fragrance (though quite poisonous, so not to be confused with their edible relatives). You could have evergreen herbs at the foot of the fence perhaps. Rosemary is ace, but there are enough Sage varieties to give lots of interest too, and loads of other stuff that would suit a sunny, free draining spot.

 

I would plant a hedge against the fence - covers it completely, and softens up the garden - hedging is the backbone of almost any garden as it gives it structure. Plant the frilly stuff later. Why not look at beech or yew if you want something formal or maybe escallonia or shrub roses if you want something a bit more colourful.

Good luck
John

 

Big question is what type of soil you have. Is it chalk? or clay? or otherwise something which plants might take a dislike to?

If you want to be neighbour-friendly, anything under about 10ft is probably good. So on the flowering shrub thing, there's weigela, philadelphus, buddleia, snowberry, hypericum and roses spring immediately to mind.

Trees are a problem if you don't want to risk blocking out the neighbours' sun. Best call there would probably be a few fruit trees - you can get them with rootstock which limits them to any size you want, and of course you can eat the results! Other trees worth considering are witch hazel and magnolia.