Garden hedging

[Théière]

Massive garden clearing going on. Lots of ivy and bramble removal. Now the garden is all open, we need to re plant but what with?

Don't want privet or conifers as too many biting insects and they are boring.

Any suggestions?

[YCCMB]

Laurel?

[Lehaut]

Pyracantha? Our neighbour opposite has it, good deterrent, nice flowers, great berries, he trims it by hand and it look great Need thick gloves..

[Théière]

Thank you both, looking into them now. Just how spikey nasty are pyracantha thorns, been looking at Google images but can't really see the prickly bits.

[Beckett]

I'm not a gardener, so treat my suggestion with caution, but what about hawthorn? It's nice and thorny, so makes a good boundary. And anything thorny makes a safe refuge for nesting birds, and birds eat insects, so everyone's a winner!

[alittlebitfrench]

Bamboo

[Gardengirl]

Pyracantha is a good idea, although I prefere a more informal mixed hedge.

[YCCMB]

We had pyracantha at our last house, growing up by the side of the front door. All I can say is that the flowers smell like dead people. I guess if your hedge is far enough away from your house, it's not a problem.

[BritinBretagne]

What do you need the hedge to do? Over the years I’ve cleared a huge amount of brambles and rough hedging and have replaced it where necessary in different ways. Along the longest side there was no need to do anything as once the brambles were cleared a low stone wall was exposed which is a great addition to the garden. Between my garden and my neighbour’s I constructed a post and rail fence using good quality wood and the final part has been allowed to grow into a wild hawthorn hedge as that provides the level of security that location needs.

Bamboo is a menace and should be avoided all all costs, unless it’s dead and being used for privacy.

[Alan Zoff]

As a softy who hates anything with thorns, I am a big fan of beech for hedges. Kept trimmed, it makes a good strong boundary with year-round colour. Birds seem to like it, too. I am gradually replacing miles of leylandii with beech and wish I had done so years ago.

[Théière]

[quote user="Flaneur"]I'm not a gardener, so treat my suggestion with caution, but what about hawthorn? It's nice and thorny, so makes a good boundary. And anything thorny makes a safe refuge for nesting birds, and birds eat insects, so everyone's a winner![/quote]

Just ripped out loads of ugly hawthorn at great expense, not likely to put it back!

[Théière]

[quote user=" YCCMB"]We had pyracantha at our last house, growing up by the side of the front door. All I can say is that the flowers smell like dead people. I guess if your hedge is far enough away from your house, it's not a problem.[/quote]

Definitely don't want the smell of dead people but farther away sounds doable. We already have a yellow flowering bush that smells of sperm!

[Théière]

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]Bamboo[/quote]

Not a chance in hell! roots run riot BIL has a bamboo forest, not at all what I want but thanks for the input.

[Théière]

[quote user="BritinBretagne"]What do you need the hedge to do? Over the years I’ve cleared a huge amount of brambles and rough hedging and have replaced it where necessary in different ways. Along the longest side there was no need to do anything as once the brambles were cleared a low stone wall was exposed which is a great addition to the garden. Between my garden and my neighbour’s I constructed a post and rail fence using good quality wood and the final part has been allowed to grow into a wild hawthorn hedge as that provides the level of security that location needs.

Bamboo is a menace and should be avoided all all costs, unless it’s dead and being used for privacy.[/quote]

Long term I shall rebuild the fallen garden walls but I want natural screening but with a bit of colour and hopefully helping the natural order.  Put up so much fencing in my life for work but may well need this along one side. Hoping to plant was first thought.

[Théière]

[quote user="Alan Zoff"]As a softy who hates anything with thorns, I am a big fan of beech for hedges. Kept trimmed, it makes a good strong boundary with year-round colour. Birds seem to like it, too. I am gradually replacing miles of leylandii with beech and wish I had done so years ago.[/quote]

Looks like a good suggestion to Alan, right up to the point I checked the price! Really would like some seasonal colour variation to.

Found a garden centre near me so will go and take a look but with around 300m to do I can vary the ideas.

[Loiseau]

Absolutely NOOOOO to bamboo!

Have you thought of eleagnus ebingii? It comes in plain or variegated versions; is evergreen; grows fairly fast, but is easy to keep in check. And in the autumn it has a delicious fragrance, emanating from flowers so tiny that you almost can't see them.

I used to trim mine with hand shears (cos that's all I had); it does have slightly fuzzy undersides to the leaves that can be itchy on the skin for a few hours after you have lugged armfuls of trimmings to the compost heap. But on balance it makes an excellent hedge.

[DerekJ]

I'm using Photinia both in the Lot and in deepest Surrey. More attractive than Laurel but forms a decent barrier.

[nomoss]

[quote user="DerekJ"]I'm using Photinia both in the Lot and in deepest Surrey. More attractive than Laurel but forms a decent barrier.

[/quote]

++ Cheap enough, nice looking evergreen, reddish pink new foliage in Spring, and reasonably fast growing too.

[richard51]

We had a 30m section of of garden next to a small path. It had a thorny hedge entangled with the ubiquitous metal/concrete posts and mesh in the region (dordogneshire). A pain to maintain.

We removed the thorny hedge and tried to make it more attractive by planting clematis to climb up the fence. So far a failure.

Currently trying honeysuckle with the occasional hibiscus which so far is doing ok.

Not really too interested in fast or semi-fast hedges as they need too much maintenance.

So, I personally would suggest a chain fence with various shrubs to your taste at intervals.

NB Photinia does look attractive.

[Patf]

When we were in our first house in France we had a french man who helped with gardening, building etc. When we needed a new hedge he said just cut bits off the bushes you like and stick them in the soil. Which we did, and it worked. Can't remember what kind they were.

The plants were adapted to that type of soil. And they probably did the work at the best time of the year. And moon.

I don't think early Jan. is a good time.

[richard51]

I forgot all about the moon factor.

[Théière]

[quote user="Loiseau"]Absolutely NOOOOO to bamboo!

Have you thought of eleagnus ebingii?[/quote]

Thought of it, I never heard of it! [:D]

Thanks for the suggestion though, I will now go and google it.

[BritinBretagne]

In the olden day’s I would have said box.

[BritinBretagne]

My parents’ neighbour had a beech hedge, it was lovely and didn’t appear to need too much maintenance. Over 50 years on its still just as good.

[Loiseau]

Here it is

https://www.hedgesdirect.co.uk/acatalog/oleaster-elaeagnus-x-ebbingei.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkpTB2I3p3wIVArTtCh0mGACGEAAYASAAEgKInvD_BwE

In French you would ask for "ell-ay-an-yewss" !