What hedge plant?

Hello everyone,

I've a short wall (between 2-3 feet tall) running the length of the front of my house that I would like to plant a hedge behind. The propose behind this is mostly for privacy but also as a feature in the garden as well.

Where the hedge would be planted is grass/lawn right now so I would need to lift the grass and create a garden bed and that's about as much as I know how to do. How do I create the best garden bed after lifting the turf, what type of hedge plant should I use to make the hedge, how far apart should I plant the hedge plants?

I would like it to be about 5-6 feet tall and quite thick to provide privacy once the hedge is established.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Ryan.

 

Hi

Where about roughly do you live as this will help with your question.

I would check with the by laws as front hedges may be have to lower than you want to grow

There is a law limiting the height of a fence which can be erected between a property and the road without planning permission (which is just 3ft), but that doesn't seem to apply to hedges. There is no law limiting the height of a hedge - but there is a very complex law about hedges which block a neighbour's light (see http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/hedgeheight.pdf)
The only restriction might be if the hedge actually prevented motorists seeing approaching traffic, in which case a council might be able to order it reduced or removed.

 

Thanks Spruce.

I live in the far north of Scotland. About 20 miles south of John O' Groats in Caithness.

That is some very useful information and I would never have thought that there would be local by laws to do with hedges. It makes sense that if they were an obstruction they would be removed. The front of my property is on a straight road so it won't intrude on line of sight for anyone apart from people looking into our house. I will check that out as if I can only grow a hedge roughly the same height as my wall there is no point in it.

 

Hi Ryan

Scottish laws may be different ? worth checking though , as soon as I read front garden

But plenty of time for prep and Autumn planting is ideal and buying bare rooted plants makes it so much cheaper

Things we need to know to help you;

what type of soil wet dry ?
prevailing winds ?
full sun or shade or a mixture of both
anything you have seen growing locally (take a picture if you dont know what it is)

Lots on GC member's will help you choose and how to do the soil prep as well, I will start you off a new spade

Spruce

 

Cheers again Spruce. I will have a goo look through the Scottish hedge bill and see what is what. I don't think it will affect me putting a hedge up as after a quick skim it seems that if it is under 2m and isn't blocking a neighbours light it is alright. The front of my property isn't really close to either of my neighbours. My self and the two next door neighbours all have about 4m between our houses and the boundary wall, so about 8m between houses and they are all set back from the front boundary by about 6 or 7m so a front hedge won't affect anybody.

The soil is quite good by the look of it, I would say more on the wet side rather than dry. We are quite sheltered from wind but I've not had a winter in this house yet and we are quite close to the shore, there is only a bare field between us and the shore. I'm going to say there is medium exposure to high winds. The proposed hedge area will be exposed to sunlight all day long, summer and winter. I will take a wonder and snap some sneaky pictures of nice hedges in the local area that I can find and post them, I will have no idea what I am looking at.

Hahaha, a new spade - check! I'll have to start stocking my garage with gardening tools now! ;-)

 

If you're close to the sea then I'd take a guess that your soil is sandy like mine. Escallonia and Grisilinia are probably the hardiest hedges and also evergreen, these two plus Hebe will put up with a seaside location and battering from wind.

Below is Escallonia, it has a smell of citrus when cut or crushed, the flowers are perfumed too.

 

Mark out where you want your trench.

Take an inch or two of turf off the top
Dig out the soil one spade's depth (put it to one side, on the adjacant lawn maybe?)
Loosen the soil in the bottom of the trench. Add some rotted manure or any other "organic matter" - compost, and the like.
Put the turves in the bottom of the trench, grass side down. Doesn't have to be pretty (depending on how "whole" you were able to lift them! They will rot down, and will hold moisture.
Replace the soil

Allow to settle, then maybe pull the surface about (e.g. with a rake or cultivator) to get it sort-of-level

When you plant the hedge dig a hole for each plant, pop it in, and replace the soil around it. Firm gently with your foot. I presume the plants won't rock in the wind if they are against a wall?

It is critical that the plants are not planted any deeper than they were previously. If they are in containers that's easy - the soil level in the container will give you a marker, for bare root plants (available Nov-Mar, and I prefer them as a) cheap and b) establish more quickly) you need to check for a soil mark on the stem.

You could put some "mycorrhizal fungi" around the roots when you plant - note that it is critical that the fungi are in contact with the roots, don't just chuck it in the planting hole! Easiest way is to dunk the root ball in a bucket of water, put down a plastic sheet, sprinkle the fungi over the rootball, any that falls onto the sheet can be "moped up" using the wet rootball as a sponge. Mycorrhizal fungi sold under trade names like "Rootgrow"

Personally I would get some woven weed suppressing membrane (trade names like Mypex) - the 1M wide will do - and cut an X for each plant and carefully thread the plant through, then tuck the edges into the soil to anchor them (using a spade). I would put a length of leaky-hose under the membrane (weave it in-and-out of each plant) - that's obviously easier if done before putting the membrane down! The membrane will keep the moisture in, and prevent any weeds growing. It looks bog-ugly, but personally I leave it like that (make sure you get a UV stabilised type), but you can cover it with bark or gravel if you like (in which case you don't need UV stabilised). Hook the leaky hose up to your hose twice a week during the Summer (3 times a week in drought) for the first 2 or 3 years (unless you have really good rainfall in your part of the world )

Privet, Beech (if your land is light) or Hornbeam (if heavy soil), Holm Oak (good near the sea, evergreen, and unusual ) or a conifer like Thuja plicata atrovirens, or even Yew

None of those are flowering hedges though - perhaps you would prefer that? Flowering hedges tend not to make good candidates for a smart, clipped, hedge.

It varies, depending on plant type and initial size, but generally 2-per-metre would be a guide. If you want a really thick hedge than planting a staggered double row is best, that would be about 3-per-metre.

Note that a tall-ish "privacy" front hedge provides more opportunity for burglars to tackle the front of your house "Unseen", so you might want to limit the height a bit.

 

Thanks Sheal, that Escallonia is a very nice looking hedge. I like the flowers and the fact that it has a scent but I would want to keep it trimmed quite sharp. It looks pretty good though. That's very good info on the garden bed Kristen, thank you very much for that. I'll follow those steps when I start this project. I'll take a few snaps on the way too to show everyone how I'm getting on with it. What time of the year is best to start this kind of thing? Just before summer? Would the next 3 or 4 weeks be a bad time to plant a hedge? Yeah I doubt there would be a lot of movement as the plants will be quite close to the wall and it will have the house on the other side so they should be quite sheltered until they grow over the height of the wall. What is the mycorrhizal fungi and what does it do? I'll do a google search for those different names of hedge plants you gave me and see what ones I look the like of. There is a nice hedge just a few doors away that I quite like, I'll take a picture of it and post it for identification if that alright, it might very well be one you have listed. Thanks Shiney - I'll have a quick call to the council about putting up a hedge and if there is height restrictions that are too short I might start the hedge short and creep the height a couple of inches a year! lol. Thank you all for the great info, I can see me getting well into this gardening game!

 

Escallonia is "shaggy" so I doubt you will be able to make a sharp hedge :(

Ideally plant the hedge in November. You can do the preparation any time in the run up to that.

If the hedge plants are container grown you can plant them at any time of the year. You'll need to water them adequetly to start with, but you'll gain a season compared to planting in the Autumn. Personally I think that bare-root plants, planted in the autumn, get away the best, but I may be splitting hairs! I always look upon gaining an extra season as a bigger advantage. Even if they spend this summer getting "settled" they will make better growth next year.

Container grown hedge plants normally more expensive. If you only have a few yards to do it won't make many odds ...

Supposedly stimulate root growth so that plants establish more quickly. The RHS swear by it (but they endorse every packet of it, so may well be getting a kickback). I am not sure it has made much/any difference to anything that I have planted, and it isn't particularly cheap, but independent side-by-side trials look convincing - maybe my style of husbandry is not compatible?!!

Do NOT use Bonemeal for planting if you also use mycorrhizal fungi (in fact better not to use it at all, the advice for using it at planting time [at all] has been superseded by different thinking now, but, either way, it will definitely interfere with mycorrhizal fungi)

Yup, we like pictures Pls take some closeups of the leaves too.

 

I have about 25m of front wall that I want to run the hedge behind..... so I think I will go for bare root plants if they are cheaper, esp if I am going to need approx. 3 per meter staggered. That's a lot of plants!

Where is the best place to source bare root plants in bulk? Is there somewhere cheaper to buy them rather than the likes of B&Q and Homebase?

I'll see about getting some pictures of hedges tomorrow at some point, I've been seeing hedges everywhere since starting to think about my own project.

 

lots of choice just google "bare root hedging" you should have places in Scotland as well

 

I have had pretty much all mine from Ashridge Trees, always been very happy with their quality.

http://www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/hedging-plants-trees-shrubs-bareroot

Their latest website is more Design than Function, sadly, and won't show you a price for products that are out of stock or out of season, which might make price comparison diffiult at this time of the season.

Depends on the plant type you choose, but for, say, Beech and Hornbeam I would go with 60/80cm plants. That's not the shortest plant, and represents a good break-point between price and size. They are the largest that will get away quickly, but you can buy bigger for "instant", but they won't do much for a couple of years, but which time the 60/80cm would have caught up - so IMHO ideal for a boundary hedge where you want an obvious "demarkcation" from day one, but where that is not the case I'd go for the "largest sensible small-size"

Anyway, 60/80cm Beech in the qty you need is about £1.20 each (you need to add Fungi, and Weed Membrane and Leaky hose - that's going to add another £2-3 per metre I'm afraid.

If you buy bare root make sure the soil is prepared before they arrive. They will keep about a week (in the cold, in a shed) but it would be better if they were planted within a day or two of arrival.

 

Not the best of pictures but I've just taken this.....




This was trimmed quite harshly two weeks ago, however you cut Escallonia it will 'bounce' back very quickly. A few years back I pruned it back 3ft leaving just bare stems, it had totally recovered the following year. I cut it twice a year.