Growing a Hedge

[SardineJam]

We live in a rented property so don?t want to spend too much on maintaining the garden, which the landlord has asked us to do. We have a small perimeter bed running the one side of a concrete slabbed garden ? can you imagine how lovely it must be ? and sadly we are constantly being inundated by cats and their faeces! Best solution we can think of is just grow a hedge, so tell me how to do it please!
Prerequisites are

• Fast growing
• Cheap to buy
• Perennial [If such a thing is possible when it comes to hedges]
• Easy to maintain

Nice to have but not essential

• Flowers in the spring or summer

I'm sure there must be something out their that would suit, and if there is can you let me know, and also how to go about planting and growing it

wouldn't some form of fencing be better? the cats are just going to climb through a hedge. or see if you could do something to stop the cats pooing. i have a dog i could lend you - that works well or what about a hosepipe or water pistol or changing the soil where they poo eg putting something prickly/hard there?

Well we've got a standard wooden fence but then I want to just put a hedge, probably hip-height, next to the fence in the bed that is currently filled with everything to do with "cat". Surely they wouldnt want to poop inside a hedge so thinking it might work - also, to be fair I cant be bothered maintaining flowerbeds, as even though it will be nice to have a pretty garden, I dont have enough time, working full-time and having a one year old. I just think i could perhaps leave the hedge to get on with itself, with minimum maintenance!

I can't think of a quick and cheap way of getting a hedge without going down the leylandii route, but I don't think you want to do that.
And I also think you might be barking up the wrong tree in thinking that it will do anything to stop the cats pooing. Are there any hedges so thick right down to the ground that a cat wouldn't just poo under or near it?
Sorry.

What's wrong with leylandii? The cats arent the main reason but I would like to fill up the bed, hence the hedge idea, so there arent vast open areas of soil, which only encourages the cats, I dont want to spend loads on maintenance and flowers, as its not an 'investment'

Just, if you don't stay on top of trimming it it can grow up to something like 100ft tall and suck all the goodness out of the soil away from anything else anyone in the vicinity may want to grow. So it will take constant maintenance.

I think for more aesthetically pleasing planting, if it's just that you want to fill up the bed, you might be better off with shrubs. buddleia, rock rose, red currant bush, lavender. I don't know, you could pick ones that flower at different times.

If you dont want high maintenance then do not go for leylandii as it needs trimming several times a year and you'd need some decent tools to clip it. If you dont clip it within a few years it will have grown so tall it will block out all your sunlight and your neighbours' too.
I cant imagine your landlord would want a leylandii hedge, they are subject to 6ft height restrictions (as they have caused to many neigbour dispites), which again goes back to very regular maintenance.
A mixed native hedge would be better, much cheaper to buy bare root you may just have time if you order asap...
www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/Hedging-Plants-Trees-Shrubs-Bareroot?osCsid=d69b9da738ba7f118f6101b05dda6525

Just checked the website again and you are too late for bare root, but the prices are good anyway and there are lots of hedging nurseries on-line.