What should I get to create front garden hedges?

[Cattreesea]

I bought a house last year and I would like to plant a hedge in the front garden this year to add more privacy.

I am on the Kent coast and the front garden gets light/sun for most of the day.

I have pets and visiting foxes that use the gardens.

I am fairly new at gardening so what would you recommend that I buy?

Also would March be a good time for me to plant the new hedge?

A mixture of shrubs is nicer than a uniform line of identical ones, I think ... but others may disagree. If you Google "hedge mixes shrubs" you'll get some suggestions.

The choice of what to plant depends on lots of things. How tall do you want the shrubs to grow? Check the maximum heights of whatever you buy, and the spread, to make sure they won't outgrow their spaces. Do you want them evergreen? Or deciduous with autumn leaf colour (e.g. dogwood) & bare branches in winter. Flowering?

How far is the hedge line from the house? Deep-rooted shrubs can cause trouble if they're too near your walls - we had this with a viburnum.

I’ve just bought some hedging plants from here. It’s a good time of year now to plant bare root hedges and they have mixed packs that might suit your location, or you can buy separate species if you prefer.

www.rootsplants.co.uk/

If you are near the coast, then I would suggest escallonia.

Height, depth, evergreen???????

Privet is an old favourite, Portuguese Laural is a pleasant evergreen, Laurel can be a bit deep.
Personally I like Beech mixed with Holly, the changing colours are lovely.

Thanks everyone for the advice so far. To answer some of the additional query:

• I want them to be evergreen
• In term of height, I have a nosy neighbour across the street, so the taller the better...
• I live in a seaside town
• The hedge would be about 4m from the house.

Don’t go for leylandi or similar as they are awful for wildlife and there are laws about how high they can grow.
I personally don’t like laurel and privet is ok but needs to be trimmed every month in the growing season to look neat as it is quick growing.
I would pick either holly or the beech which holds its leaves. Both slow growing natives which provide a nice large screening hedge once mature.

Laurel is quick to grow and easy to trim but agree a uniform.

Red robins the large variety grow pretty quick and are evergreen with some lovely red/russet colours.

We replaced our privet hedge with yew and it’s much better. More dense and has quickly grown to 6ft. We also had a bleached hornbeam hedge created along the side of our drive. That took a while to look good but it does now as we’re really pleased with it.

Griselinia is a good evergreen shrub for coastal areas. There are a few different coloured cultivars.

Some ideas here:
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2023/05/best-hedge-plants/

If you get salty winds, stick to the Escallonia. I don’t know Griselina but that sounds like another choice.

I'm partial to a beech hedge. It's not evergreen, but will keep its (brown) leaves through the winter

Not recommending this supplier, it's just the first one on google with good photos (apologies for the long link https://www.gardenersdream.co.uk/green-beech-bare-root-hedge-1ft-5ft-p7152/s20400?utmsource=google&utmmmedium=cpc&utmterm=green-beech-bare-root-hedge-1ft-5ft-size-3-4ft-90-120cm-qty-5-size-3-4ft-90-120cm-qty-50-plants-10m-hedge-broot-v-fagsyl3-4ft50&utmmcampaign=product%2Blisting%2Bads&cid=GBP&glCurrency=GBP&glCountry=GB&gadsource=1&gbraid=0AAAAADFa63JL4EfDDeyn2cOkqT4Y9swgL&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIq-Wjj9WRiwMVdZlQBh3eoB6REAQYASABEgIU9PDBwE

I'm partial to a beech hedge. It's not evergreen, but will keep its (brown) leaves through the winter

That is why (IMO) they are so attractive (while being bird friendly).👍
As I said on my previous post, mixed in with holly you get the lovely winter mix of brown, green & red (berries).
Add some Copper Beech and you have even more variety.

We've gone with this and I love it!

Not evergreen, but I love my hawthorn hedge :)

Red robin and mexican orange blossom and also hebe

Also theres one I keep seeing with little red berries, is it Viburnam?

Another one for Escallonia if you’re by the sea. Evergreen, small leaves so it looks tidy, pretty tiny flowers, good for bees. You can plant a mix of colours (red, white, pink) for variety.

Whatever you do, don't plant blackthorn. It is a vicious thug. We have a 20ft mixed hedge and we took the blackthorn out in the end.

Things in our hedge that work well are hawthorn, guelder rose, hornbeam, dogwood and snowberry. We have added a photinia and forsythia to fill the gap where the blackthorn was.

We also have a hazel, but that gets a bit chunky compared to the other plants and is harder to keep to the 5ft height we like.

I'd also suggest red robin!

Do your neighbours have hedges at the front? Do check in case the covenants say you can't have a hedge

Don't get box, caterpillars have killed mine😞

@ReignOfError (apologies for the long link If you click the “link” symbol, last but one in the little row of symbols at the bottom of the posting box, just above “by posting on mumsnet you agree…” it throws up a box with one space to paste your link and a “text” space to write a short phrase. Then hit “save”. The post will show your short phrase. Like this

if you don’t want the picture to appear, hit the dustbin symbol next to it

I agree a mix is best. Forsythia will give winter flowers for extra colour at a fdull time of year.

Avoid laurels. They are thugs, and no use to wildlife.

Ornamental currant is another good one for early spring colour. Not evergreen, but the branches are quite dense and twiggy so still provides a reasonable screen even whe the leaves fall off.

If you want winter flowers and evergreen, mahonia/berberis