Birch hedging

john mayo 10

Would birch be a good choice for hedging

Rinker

Simple answer - No.
Hedges are predominantly used as either a physical or visual barriers.
The growth habit of birch is very light and open, making them unsuitable as a hedge. They can however look very well planted among other hedgerow plants. In rural areas you can use whitethorn, Blackthorn, holly, hazel, wild cherry, gorse, wild roses, woodbine in many different combinations.

In urban areas you have far more choice. Laurel, griselinia, priver, box etc make good dense hedges in a relatively short period of time.

If its all the same to you use native plants as they provide the best food and shelter for all the various insects and other wildlife in your garden.

john mayo 10

would you reccomend beech hedging ?

Daisy M

Beech is very popular at the moment due to the fact that the frost didnt kill it off this winter. Make sure you buy good stock though and you need to plant a double row it has to be trimmed each year along the top and sides in order to encourage new shoots to grow, however dont over prune the max reccomendation is half that years growth. Laurel makes a great hedge frost didnt kill that either. Stay away from griselinea and escallonia, they make a lovely hedge and grow quickly but frost has killed off a huge amount this year.

Sonnenblumen

Rinker wrote: »

Simple answer - No.
Hedges are predominantly used as either a physical or visual barriers.
The growth habit of birch is very light and open, making them unsuitable as a hedge. They can however look very well planted among other hedgerow plants. In rural areas you can use whitethorn, Blackthorn, holly, hazel, wild cherry, gorse, wild roses, woodbine in many different combinations.

In urban areas you have far more choice. Laurel, griselinia, priver, box etc make good dense hedges in a relatively short period of time.

If its all the same to you use native plants as they provide the best food and shelter for all the various insects and other wildlife in your garden.

What is the significance of native? Some choices might provide not only shelter but valuable food source for the birdies? There are also some very good evergreen options providing shelter all year as well as valuable food source in Autumn/Winter months?

Aesthetics might also be a determining factor, security and/or sound barrier etc?

Some excellent evergreens include Viburnum, Pyracantha, Cotoneaster and Photinia etc

Cotoneaster lacteus or C-Cornubia are superb and resilient, with flowers, berries and requiring less work to contain growth than some of the traditional 'native types'.


Preferred hedge height as well as site conditions/aspect would be important influencing factors affecting options.

Antiquo

john mayo 10 wrote: »

would you reccomend beech hedging ?

JM - Depends entirely on where you intend to plant it, i.e. ground conditions and soil type, etc.

In saying that Beech is a very good hedging plant and as stated previously by others along with a multitude of alternative plants which also have specific soil and site requirements.

Qwerty?

I agree with Rinker, Birch is not dense enough for hedging.

I have a 5 year old Beech hedge. It makes a lovely hedge, and maintains privacy during the winter due to it keeping the dead leaves through winter. I also planted a Hornbeam hedge last year (again keeps it dead leaves through winter), both have been unaffected by the harsh weather.

Many the Grisellina, Laurel and Escolonia hedges around me weren't so lucky.

Rinker

Sonnenblumen wrote: »

What is the significance of native? Some choices might provide not only shelter but valuable food source for the birdies?

There are a number of reasons for choosing native hedgerow plants. Most importantly is that all our wildlife has evolved to live on these plants. Whereas many exotic plants provide a great food source during the summer months most native insects and birds can get food and shelter year round in a native hedgerow.
During the summer plants like Hawthorn provide huge amounts of food to insects and in autumn feed birds and mammals. When a plant such as this looses its leaves it gives ivy a great chance to flourish and provide food in the depths of winter. The changing light conditions that occur throughout the year in a native hedgerow give opportunities for smaller plants and flowers to grow beneath the hedgerow and these in turn provide valuable food for wildlife in late winter and early spring. Non native hedging plants like escallonia for example provide lots of food for nectar gathering insects for a few months of the summer but create so much shade that nothing can survive underneath them. i.e they are restricting biodiversity
For those of us who work with landscapes and gardens we have to be aware of our responsibilities in this regard. The idea that when we start on a garden or landscape plan that we have a blank canvas is showing a real lack of understanding of our profession. We should be mindful of what is appropriate for the places we work. Perhaps we should think of our work more as repairing landscapes and revealing their natural beauty than putting our unique mark on them. In this type of landscaping native plants are your key building blocks.
BTW beech hedging is very dense both physically and visually year round making it a good hedging plant but it is bad for biodiversity.