Medium height shrubs or bushes for privacy

[apapuchi]

Hi everyone,

Hoping to take advantage of the knowledge and experience of those more green-fingered than I, to find a solution to an upcoming issue on our front garden side border. I will be really grateful for any advice or tips given 😊

We have a block paved drive with a border around 4m (length) x 1m (width) which borders our non-adjoined neighbour. It has a 3ft fence and in front of that had some bushes and a conifer around 10ft tall. The conifer despite being in the middle of the 4m length shielded a lot of view with its branches. Unfortunately a tree from the road fell during the Easter storm onto our tree and porch. Our tree stopped the council tree from hitting the houses properly which was good of course but it broke all the branches down that side which have now turned brown and are dead. It's a one sided tree now and my reading tells me it can't recover or grow new ones on that side. So we need to have it taken down and I've arranged our usual tree surgeon (we have two trees in the back garden he manages already) to take it down and he will when he can fit it in.

As I said, we have the low level fence but the tree provided privacy and also (don't want this to sound snobby but it probably will anyway) shielded the view of our non-attached neighbours jungle-like front garden. Their path runs along our fence so there isn't overgrowth really it just looks bad and I preferred looking at my tree 😂

I am going to ask the tree surgeon's advice when he comes but wondered what the wise hive mind may suggest. I was thinking of maybe three or four small trees or shrubs or bushes that might grow to four or five feet (or taller, I could and would prune) and do so fairly quickly and be quiet low maintenance and easy enough for me to plant myself. Maybe I need a gardener or expert?

I've come across various laurel and bay options that say they're fairly fast growing and evergreen. Is there anything I should be aware of or anything else I should consider?

If further info is needed am happy to provide, any advice or insight really welcome! Thank you for reading!

Laurel grows like wildfire so for me that would be a no.

Im not sure about bay - I have an edible bay tree and it grows incredibly slowly, perhaps it’s a different variety.

Have you considered Osmanthus Burkwoodii ? I think it might suit you well

Personally though I would definitely plant something native: holly. I have had a lot of luck with holly. I have a dark green and a variegated holly. Some of them grow slowly and they are very pretty - you do need to keep them trimmed say once or twice a year but you can shape them beautifully and make them a height you like and the berries are popular with the birds. Plus at Christmas you can cut some boughs and use them indoors - very decorative! Once established both my hollies are totally drought proof too , which is a bonus. I have shaped mine into trees with a little trunk so I can under plant with spring flowers. Absolutely lovely and there’s nothing like seeing those red berries to make you feel Christmassy.

The usual front garden boundary in my area is red robin, they trim nicely and are decorative but again they do grow crazy fast and I find they shed leaves so personally I would avoid avoid avoid.

Choose a variety with a max height of around 6 ft to swerve the monster growth options.

Euonymus Green Spire - upright habit, very versatile and tough for sun or shade - max height of 6-8ft. Need a bit of patience as its not as fast growing as some other options, but very easy to maintain as a hedge.

Choisya ternata Aztec Pearl (Mexican orange blossom cultivar), max height of about 6 ft and has a more upright growth habit than the original choisya ternata. Prefers a sunny site.

Escallonia Apple blossom - max height around 5 to 8 ft tall.

Prunus Lusitanica 'Myrtifolia' - dwarf Portugese laurel - max 5-8 ft tall.

Prunus Laurocerasus 'Otto Luyken' - dwarf cherry laurel, max height at around 6 ft.

I am a great fan of salvias. They come in a variety of wonderful colours, the leaves smell amazing and during the summer will attract bees and hover flies so great for the environment. They can grow up to about five foot. Included photo of Hotlips variety.
Edit. They will need pruning early spring.

Red Robin is a nightmare. The leaves take forever to break down and when my neighbour has hers trimmed we spend all year picking up the leaves nestled in our flower bed.

I'd go for flowering shrubs. My choice would be:

• Weigela
• Forsythia
• Flowering current
• Pheasant berry
• Ceanothus

All about 5-6ft, prunable to keep shape and control size, will give you colour (pink/red, yellow, pink, purple/red, blue - in the order of above) as they flower.

Thank you for the replies, I really appreciate it and will look at all of these suggestions and then respond properly. Thank you for taking the time to help 🙏

I’d suggest Escallonia. Dense , hardy, evergreen and attractive. They aren’t that fast growing though I’d say worth it.

If you are felling a conifer, it won't be easy for anything to establish itself without a lot of preparation of the site. How fast a shrub grows will depend as much on that as on the shrub variety, so if you want things to grow fast make sure that the stump is properly removed and a large amount of organic matter is added to the site before planting.

How much sun does it get and how much water is it liable to get? Choosing the right plant for the soil and aspect is as important as choosing them for their height.

Thank you, the Osmanthus Burkwoodii is something I'm going to explore as it looks lovely and is evergreen and another bonus if it smells nice. Not really essential but a positive nonetheless! I like the idea of holly too, I am a bit unsure about planting that. Sounds... prickly! I assume you buy a small potted tree/bush and then grow it from that rather than having to wrangle with a large spiky specimen from the get-go.

Good tip about the red robin and the shedding of leaves. We have enough of that with our back garden trees so would definitely prefer to avoid that if possible! Thank you again!

Oh the Aztec Pearl is lovely and my husband is Mexican so it's calling to me! It doesn't seem like it would provide enough of a barrier (as it were) so maybe I could find space for it in my back garden as they are lovely. That said, I probably shouldn't be committing to plants that I don't need now as I am definitely not a natural gardener. Times like this my mam's Alzheimer's really hits hard as she was a huge botanist and gardener 🥹 anyway, I digress!

I see Escallonia has been mentioned again since you mentioned it, I have been doing a bit of looking into that and the others so will keep on. I am a bit worried about the most recent post that the conifer 'remains' might put paid to anything I have planned argh. Must keep researching. Thanks so much for the suggestions 🙏

This is beautiful, I'll look into it and thank you also for the confirmation re: Red Robin, I think I'll swerve 🙂

Thank you! Escallonia was mentioned before and I am looking into that now so thank you 😊 I suppose it may be worth a bit of a wait if the end result is what I'm really looking for!

I love viburnum. Evergreen, tough as old boots, beautiful white flowers in the spring, deep red/ black berries in the autumn, thick growth and dark, glossy leaves.

Eek, I hoped this wouldn't be the case. The tree surgeon quote doesn't say anything about grinding down the stump or anything, just removal as close as possible (to the roots I assume). The trunk of the conifer is actually quite small in diameter, maybe 10" at most without measuring it...it has quite a broad canopy and had grown fairly tall but the trunk doesn't take up a huge proportion of the section of land available if that makes sense. I suppose even the roots remaining might thwart other newcomers although various other things have and are a growing in the space like a rose bush, some random bushes etc which I've cut back as they'd gone bonkers but they'd managed to kind of fill out all the leftover space when left to it. I will definitely look into trying to enrich the soil once we've cleared out everything that needs to go or be cut/tidied back. I would have gladly just left the conifer but the other tree toppling has taken that option away unfortunately 😔

The patch is south-facing (we'll probably SSE) so fairly sunny or at least not shaded (our north-facing back garden is a whole other ball game) and water wise I have easy access to water it and obviously we have no real shortage of rain. Well, normally we don't, of course lately has been a strange and unusual period. Everything that has been there either by plan or by random happenstance has seemed to grow fairly well which is positive given how useless I generally am in this area. Thank you for your reply and the advice, I really appreciate it 🙂

Also good for bees 🙂. They make great hedges or standalone shrubs. Just need to watch straggly growth when they are small and clip. Good luck!

If worst comes to worst try building a lasagne bed. Layers of organic matter and cardboard piled up, then plant on top. By the time the roots get all the way down into the rubbish soil around the roots of the conifer, the plants should be reasonably established and manage to cope, plus the conifer roots will start to break down.

Will be mounded up to start out with, but should sink over time.

Alternatively, could you build a raised bed in that place? Then you can really give them decent soil.