Help with chosing a hedge please!!!

Hi

I'm hoping to get some advice on planting some kind of hedge. My double gates into my garden have finaly fallen apart and as I have never used them I was thinking of planting some hedges/conifers just to make the gargen seem a bit more secure and private. However, I am at a complete loss as to what would be the best plants to use.

They need to cover the width of the gates which is approx 5 or 6 foot and I'd idealliy like them to grow to about 6 or 7 foot. I'd like them to grow to the height pretty fast although I realise I will need to cut them back from time to time.

I'd also ideally like it to be fairly cheap, as I have just split from my partner and money is a bit tight, hence the reason I am not replacing the gates or installing a fence.

Hope someone out there can help.

Many thanks in anticipation.

 

Hi EllieLou
Ideally, its best not to plant conifers in particular leylandii(the fastest growing). They suck all the water & goodness out of the soil & support very little wildlife - if you must have conifer, Thuja is a better alternative, although slower growing. You could go for a hedge of british natives (hawthorn, beech etc) which will take a few years but is easy to manage, although some species are not evergreen. You could also try privet or Yew for evergreen colour. In all cases its best to buy small plants which establish better & you would need to cut out 1/2 of their height at planting to encourage thickening. A 6 foot by 6 foot fence panel can be bought for as little as �£15.00 (less if you shop around). with a couple of fence posts (at most �£15) & a couple of bags of post fix (about �£4.00 each) = about �£34.00. You could even choose trellis, then you could grow climbers up it.It depends on how much you want to spend, & what you want the new screening to do - there are so many choices. If you are going for hedging, check out the classified section at the back of a Gardening mag such as "Gardeners World" which has quite a few hedging retailers, Check out this link which has much more info' including on spacing http://www.gnb.ca/0171/30/0171300009-e.asp