I need something instead of a hedge...

[BessieBoots]

Have a hedge in the front garden that protects our privacy from the busy road. However, having lived here for nearly two years, I have noticed that,

1. This hedge needs trimming fortnightly from March-September; 2)I can't be bothered;
2. Even if I could be bothered, it's very dangerous to do it because of the aforementioned busy road.

So I need something that will be about the same height, five footish, but I don't like those jail-like fences. Whatever it is will be the main view from my front windows btw.

Can you think of owt?

TIA.

Word of warning Bessie but a fence along a road can usually only be 1metre/a 3'3" high, a quick look on your councils building website will tell you your councils veiw on this.

Oh dear. Will have to be a bit more inventive then. I wonder whether trellis counts as fence?

railings? some of those are dead posh

Interested in your pointmoneynopockets...my neighbours front hedge is at least 6 foot high

Would railing offer privacy though?

Oh God. I should just trim the bloody hedge, shouldn't I? Bleeeeugh.

how about a fedge ?

I have no idea about maintenance, I just like them.

or I really like the mixed hedge here, Mixed Wildlife Hedging

Oooooh! I love the fedge!

Glad you like it Bessie, we are not as exposed to a road (extremely remote) but our garden feels windswept, so we are slowly trying to fill in the gaps, we have willow, holly and next I am going to plant brambles and black currant bushes (cheap at lidl this week I think), I would also quite like to plant some hazel too. I have no advice though because I am new to gardening.

I had planned to replace a wobbly fence in our back garden with a fedge, but you have to be careful with willow because it's so water-loving that its roots can crack underground water pipes. I haven't got a definitive guideline on this, but a bit of googling was enough to put me off the idea. For example, this site - search for willow and you'll see they recommend it should be 18m from a house!
Gutted, because I would have loved one, or failing that a willow wigwam for the kids, but our garden is just too small.

There's "skinny hedges" basically they ugly chain link panels - but come ready covered with an evergreen climbing plant so you get a nice look and privacy.

very skinny for smaller gardens and they don't grow any taller than the height of your fence, so a lot less hard work.

Front boundary treatments - you do theoretically need planning consent for walls, fences or any similar constructed boundary fence over 1m on the front boundary to your garden if it fronts a road as MnP has indicated - hedges get round this by growing.

Sounds as though you've got a fast growing hedge though - you could rip it out and start again with somethign that doesn't need triming as much... but, of course, you would have to wait longer for it to grow to a reasonable height as well. I'm growing a yew and holly hedge down the side of my driveway - but its only 2' at the moment and has been planted for 2 yrs - luckily don't need it for screening at the moment! Beech and hornbeam are also nice hedging plants and you could probably get away with only 2 cuts per season.