Advice on what bare root hedging to buy

angeldaisy

I wonder if any of you wonderful experts here could offer some advice please

I'm planning on buying some bare root hedging over the next couple of weeks and have no idea what to go for - but I really don't like Laurel.

The ground is wet and boggy during the winter but dry during the summer. It needs to be a windbreak as we are on a fairly open site.

Would a mix of plants look good? I like a natural native feel - it's not a formal garden and we are in the country.

Any recommendations on what to go for and what to avoid?

Thanks

Lumen

How high do you want it eventually?
How much space have you got (depth of hedge/shelter belt)?
Do you want/need that windbreak all year round?
How far from the coast are you?

angeldaisy

Lumen wrote: »

How high do you want it eventually?
How much space have you got (depth of hedge/shelter belt)?
Do you want/need that windbreak all year round?
How far from the coast are you?

I would like to keep it around 5 ft as it's not needed for privacy, there is plenty of room for depth, we are on a half acre site, so are not limited by space.
The windbreak would be needed all year round as we are fairly high up and open.

We are nowhere near the coast - based in County Limerick

_Brian

Hornbeam is very loke beach in appearance but much more tolerable to poorer soils...

Mixed with hawthorn, wild rose and maybe holly it would make a nice native style hedge.. On its own ist nice too.

Lumen

I don't think you're going to get any sort of windbreak from a 5ft hedge on a 1/2 acre site, unless you're sitting in a deckchair right behind it.!

angeldaisy

Lumen wrote: »

I don't think you're going to get any sort of windbreak from a 5ft hedge on a 1/2 acre site, unless you're sitting in a deckchair right behind it.!

How high would we need to go then?

Lumen

angeldaisy wrote: »

How high would we need to go then?

A rough rule of thumb I read is that you can expect to get decent shelter up to 5x the height of whatever you plant, and then a bit less another 5x out from that, as long as it's dense enough and there aren't any odd gaps to funnel the wind (which can make things worse).

So a 3m high shelterbelt will give decent protection for 15m and OK protection for another 15m.

You get more protection from denser/deeper planting, but only up to a point - the wind will go over it anyway.

The conventional approach to a shelter belt is to do it in layers, with taller trees on the outside, then maybe shorter coppiced trees (willow?) in a second layer, and then shrubs inside that.

That's fine as long as you don't have a neighbour to worry about, if you do you can flip it round and put a dense hedge (staggered double row) on the boundary and then a row of specimen trees inside it. I think you get a decent sense of space that way, as you get a sightline all the way under the canopy of trees to the hedged boundary.

Dense evergreens (e.g. cypress) can really suck the light out of a garden. I personally don't think the extra wind protection is worth the loss of light.

Obviously (or maybe not) bare root hedging is deciduous. If you're planting evergreens they come potted and can be planted year round, except the height of summer when the watering will need to be done constantly to get them established.

The Tree Council has a list of native species:

https://treecouncil.ie/tree-advice/native-species/

Maybe try and figure out exactly what's making the ground boggy, as that will have a major bearing on what you can plant. You might be able to put in a simple drain and fix that, opening up your choices.

I'd love some lime trees but apparently they hate wet feet. Someone in a garden centre was telling me they had some lime trees that were doing great for a few years until the roots hit water and then they perished. A few years wasted!

macraignil

angeldaisy wrote: »

How high would we need to go then?

It might be worth considering planting a few trees along the hedge with space in between them as these will reduce the effect of the wind without trying to stop it completely. A solid barrier to wind causes it to jump over it and creates turbulence whereas something like trees with space in between has a more of a cushioning effect on the wind. A hedge with a height over 5ft will be more difficult to trim and keep tidy so by allowing trees along the length you can boost the amount of shelter without completely blocking your light by keeping a tall hedge that could need machinery to keep cut at the higher level.