Planting Hedging

[PandorasBag]

The wooden panels on a low fence separating our house from our neighhbours keep blowing down. We have a small front garden. Her drive is block paved. There is some planting on our side of the border. A laburnum halfway along, plus a bit of holly and some cotoneaster near the front doors. Our neighbours and I think we might like to forget about panels/fencing and just put in some hedging.

Any recommendations? We're not worried about stuff that's fast growing - quite happy for it to be low. Something easy to cut would be great too..

Oh and here's a picture

At risk of sounding preachy, you can't beat a native hedge for supporting local wildlife. Ours has hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn, spindleberry, holly, wild privet and guelder rose in it and it's so beautiful year round. Takes a bit of TLC in the first couple of years then you just need to keep it trimmed.

Being a bit ignorant I just don't know how to access hedge plants. Not at Homebase, I'd have thought. We do have a good garden centre a few miles away though.

Preachiness is fine, though our house is quite urban and the road is relatively busy so not all wildlife will like it.

You'd be amazed what will live in a tiny space - even if it's just insects and increasing biodiversity, and of course the berries are great for birds over winter.

You can order bare root hedging plants online and plant them right away at this time of year. I've seen hedging direct and Ashridge recommended before. Sure someone will be along with some more suggestions soon too!

Thanks!

Cotoneaster is brilliant, the birds like it, it has white blossoms and red berries and it grows anywhere! It grows fast too. It doesn't mind being trimmed to shape . Though if you don't trim every year it grows more berries.

Decide where the boundary is and install a low marker fence - chicken wire or similar. Plant each side of the marker.

I've ended up going for flowering currant - as I don't want anything too formal. Wish me luck!

Errrr, what has grown best / looked prettiest out of your hedge?

It's hard to pick one tripping! The hazel and roses have grown fast but I pulled out some of the roses as they grew a bit too fast. The blacktorn is great for sloes, spindleberry has amazing flowers, hawthorn is very popular with the birds and the blossom is wonderful in spring. The holly is a bit of a slow grower but it will be nice to have a bit of coverage in winter as the garden backs onto quite a busy footpath. If I were planting again I'd probably not bother with the roses and put in more holly and wild privet for privacy, would keep the rest roughly the same.

I have a similar hedge to Errr. My best plants are snowberry, hornbeam, weigela and hawthorn on the basis of growth and easy to trim.

My hazel is like a wilful teenager and my lovely guelder roses keep getting mullered by blackfly. Also have holly, blackthorn, flowering currant. Took the dog roses out as they threw up massive whips and did bugger all.

We used Hedges Direct. They were helpful on the phone for advice and everything was as described.