hedging

monflat

I've posted about hedging before but now we are looking for something prompto!
Ditches have been cut in fields around house leaving our plot extremely exposed and more worrying very visible from the road out the back.
It's a security issue now as I feel we could be robbed ( like many people have been we have been last yr)
Expensive tools in shed trailers etc!

Anyways I need a hedge to grow up very fast.
Down one side we have evergreen LeylandI s
They have been well maintained and cut to about 12 feet where I intend to keep them.
About 50 foot of hedging needed to run at a right angle to this!

Your expert suggestions please

looksee

No matter what you put in you are not going to get total screening in less than about 3 or 4 years at best (and probably longer than that). Even leylandii would take that long to give complete privacy. Have the ditches gone, or will they be grown again by next year?

You will also need to consider how much sunlight you are going to cut out of your garden if you plant a solid hedge. Its a bit difficult to make recommendations when we don't know the site - is speed of growth the only consideration? How much are you prepared to spend on it? Would you be better advised to improve security? Would you consider panel fencing?

monflat

looksee wrote: »

No matter what you put in you are not going to get total screening in less than about 3 or 4 years at best (and probably longer than that). Even leylandii would take that long to give complete privacy. Have the ditches gone, or will they be grown again by next year?

You will also need to consider how much sunlight you are going to cut out of your garden if you plant a solid hedge. Its a bit difficult to make recommendations when we don't know the site - is speed of growth the only consideration? How much are you prepared to spend on it? Would you be better advised to improve security? Would you consider panel fencing?

Ok great thanks.

I would envisage I wouldn't be cutting too much sunlight out it's a big enough garden . it's south facing.

I suppose new post and rail fencing went up last yr between our garden and the field and it's the ditches beyond that the farmer completely pulled out so I can't see any regrowth only briars over next few yrs. That's one reason why I hadn't considered panel fencing

Budget??800- 1000 to include sowing them is this realistic?

I suppose 4 or 5 yrs time would be ok as I don't expect miracles.
What are laurels like?
I love beech but are they slow to grow? Need extra time?

looksee

You could consider hawthorn, elaeagnus (I have one that is going to have to come out of my garden, it has made such a bit, solid bush, looks nice though.), beech, hornbeam, laurel - big leaves that can looked chopped about when trimmed, but fast growing and reliable, Photinia Red Robin.

Your best approach would probably be to see what is available as bare roots locally over the next few months, buy healthy stock, not too big, and get them planted quickly after you buy them. Things like elaeagnus and photinia are probably going to work out more expensive than hawthorn and laurel, though I have not had occasion to plant a hedge for a long while so I can't be sure about that.

Berberis

With a budget of up to €1000 you should be able to buy a lot of bare root stock near end of October / November and still have change.
Its a while now since I was involved in horticulture (8 yrs) so am not up to date with prices but we sold bare root hedging to general public for around 80c to €1.25 at the time.
So if prices have not gone up to much you could buy 50 bare root hedging plants for €50.

As its for security and to block of house, May I suggest that you consider planting thorny plants like Pyracantha, Blackthorn and white thorn, Holly, Hawthorn, Berberis, Mahonia or even an informal hedge of a variety of these plants and others and also a few trees spotted along it.
Not all of these plants would be available bare root, but you should be able to buy the container grown ones cheaply enough to plant in with the bare rooted stock

50 feet is not a long run so if you are buying bare root, you could afford to plant a double row to give a denser hedge quicker.

bazbrady

laurel is what id suggest,hardy easy growing and will come up fast without much maintenance,beech can look bare in winter for privacy if not staggered correctly and planted tight.only thing is as said if cut back hard laurel it can look bare and branchy but from what your saying you want them to grow up a good bit..they will burst through the post and rail fencing thats the only thing,you see alot of people planting laurel right up beside fencing only for it to punch through.i planted portugese laurel this year and expect it to be around 5 foot in 4-5 years.if you can afford it pot grown is always better as it takes much quicker than bareroot and you wont have failures but its expensive.i planted 60 metres of hedging pot grown.

smartgardener

Using log for edging.

monflat

Many thanks everyone for your replies I'm going to do a bit more research on what all suggestions look like n go from there.
Thanks