Hedging

[wonkylegs]

We are looking to rejuvenate the hedge at the end of our garden this year. It's a big chunk of hedge about 50m long with some established trees but ever increasing gaps. It hasn't been looked after over the years.
It separates us from fields (& a footpath) and provides a much needed wind break & privacy although this is lessening as boys die off. The soil is medium clay.
I was thinking of infilling with native species but that's as far as I've got so I'm looking for suggestions for plants and where to buy them and due to the length required I'm obviously trying not to break the bank.
Any ideas?

If you're quick you can get some thorn whips in the gaps now. Cheap, simple to plant and hardy. Also provide some food for birds as they mature

Pyracantha grows like lightning, provides flowers for pollinators at a time when nectar drops off between spring and summer flowers, and fruit for birds (we had a blackbird riot when ours fruited this year, it coincided with an influx from Eastern Europe so there were droves of them gorging themselves). You can usually get it cheap as chips in Morrison's etc. It is evergreen, and thorny as hell to dissuade incursions.

www.hedgesdirect.co.uk/acatalog/Pyracantha-hedge-plants.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9f2nyr3Z2AIV4bXtCh2Hkw6UEAAYASAAEgKzB_D_BwE

I'm trying to avoid Pyracantha and Berberis as we took a lot of these out of the garden when we got here as they seem to attract child & DH injuries but thank you.

Ah yes, not good for playing in!

I spent a long time last year pulling out Ivy from a Hawthorn hedge it was suffocating and found so many gaps/spaces once I'd done this. I have filled with beech as the leaves stay on so even in winter it will provide privacy. I put whips in because it's much easier planting them in an existing hedge than larger plants - it may not give you an instant hedge though, but in 2-3 years time would look good.
The 'fashion' here seems to be for laurel but I can't say i'm a fan and it doesn't look good in a mixed hedge. I have ordered from hedges direct before and they were alright, but I found delivery wasn't great, they arrived when they arrived and needed planting straight away so it depends on how quickly you can get them in with little notice

I have used hedges direct, they were well priced and delivered on time.
I have a new (less than 5yr old) hedge which has a mixture of hazel, blackthorn, ribes, snowberry, hawthorn, weigela, hornbeam and guelder rose.
We had dogrose and beech in it too - the beech plants died and the dogrose we pulled up as it was going nuts for no gain show, all stems.

Lay it!

Gobbin, are you happy with how it looks as that's exactly the kind of hedge I'd like!

Thanks for all the tips
It looks like that's what we are going for too a mixed native hedge with a few specimen trees - avoiding beech as that's done poorly elsewhere in the garden.
We are also in the most windswept bit putting in a 1m high brushwood screen attached to the original iron field fence with the new hedge in front. It will give a bit of privacy whilst the hedge establishes and provide a bit of a windbreak to protect the hedge as it grows.

Pop a few sea buckthorns in if you can - amazing berries in the autumn. You will need 3 for pollination.

giddyup it does take a while to get established and as it’s mostly deciduous we can see through to next door still, but after hard pruning in year 3 and 4 it is filling out nicely and gives good coverage up to about 3-4ft currently. This year it should make 5ft and be pruned back to 4ft in the autumn.

My neighbour and I chose the plants together.

giddyup we can see through in winter, I meant. It thickens up nicely in summer.

Laurel is poisonous to livestock, so another reason to avoid.