Planting after conifers have been removed

[MrAlyakhin]

I've a big gap in the border between me and the neighbours after I've had some conifers removed. They were getting unmanageable and didn't look very nice. I'm really keen to plant something in the gap but I've been told I'll need to wait as nothing will grow as the soil will be acidic.

How can I speed up this process? Happy to get compost / top soil / manure.

What would you plant? It needs to be manageable. I have the following that I can move from other parts of the garden: hawthorn, beech, bird cherry, black alder, hornbeam, forsythia, yellow dogwood, wiegla and field maple. It's a south facing bit of land. Probably about 4/5 metres in length.

Any advice appreciated.

You could plant hydrangeas. I believe they like acid soil. There are various sorts Annabella ( big mop heads) Pendula (pointy heads). I would ask at a garden centre.

Conifers don't really make soil acidic to any huge degree, but they do strip it of nutrients. Lots of manure, dug in well, is the best bet. I don't see why you'd wait around, but obviously don't plant exactly on top of where the stumps were if you can help it. Any of the trees you suggest moving sound doable.

I wouldn't worry about acidic soil, conifers dont change the soil that much. It needs a decent garden compost and manure mulch though.

If you have flowers in the bed in front I'd go for Yew. Its so dense and dark the plants in front of it really stand out.

Agree with others, conifers strip the life out of soil, so it will need more structure and plenty of nutrients dug in. If you can get your hands on some leaf mould or well-rotted manure that would be great. You could maybe do that, and then sprinkle annual flower seeds there for this year while the soil improves, and then plant proper stuff next year.

Alternatively, grow any kind of beans. They have nodules on their roots which help to fix nitrogen in the soil.

Are there privacy issues now?

We put apple trees in after we got rid of ours. 2 did very well but 1 never thrived. I agree with putting as much nutrients into the soil as you can.

Next door has a huge conifer hedge. We planted climbing roses, Montana, clematis, three victoria plum trees.

We dug in nutrients, ash from the log burner in the winter. It's a sunny site and everything thrives.

A little, it's at the bottom of our drive so not that big an issue. I just don't like it being quite so open. A few shrubs/ trees will be enough in terms of privacy.

Thanks all, I'll go find some well rotted manure and dig it in.