Quick growing hedging

Hi, looking for advice on hedging. What is the best type of hedging ie. one that will be fast growing and hardy enough to thrive despite my not so green fingers, also to provide shelter and act as a kind of fence to keep the kids in!
Where is the best place to get it (i'am in wexford) and how much can i expect to pay?
my site is an acre (fairly rectangular)and i want to cover an L shape on the edges so im thinking i will need quite a bit!
Thanks in advance!

Hi, all I can say is I will be in teh same boat this summer and will probably use futureforest.net for laurel hedging, hoping red robin depending on total cost but they are very competitive, I think and came recommended on this forum, they deliver throughout ireland.

louisemartin said:

Hi, looking for advice on hedging. What is the best type of hedging ie. one that will be fast growing and hardy enough to thrive despite my not so green fingers, also to provide shelter and act as a kind of fence to keep the kids in!
Where is the best place to get it (i'am in wexford) and how much can i expect to pay?
my site is an acre (fairly rectangular)and i want to cover an L shape on the edges so im thinking i will need quite a bit!
Thanks in advance!

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As Abbica mentioned, contact www.futureforests.net (I have no connection) - if you email them with your requirements they'll recommend several options in your budget. Beware anything too fast-growing, e.g. lleylandii - people seem to forget that they stay fast-growing once they reach the desired height, so they need a lot of maintenance in terms of regular trimming.

If I were you I'd try to get one of the native hedging mixtures from Future Forests - they'll thrive on neglect and are specifically adapted to our rather exposed landscape. Plus they'll encourage loads of birds.

I bought 4' Hornbeam hedging from futureforests almost exactly two years ago and would recommend them. The plants were in perfect condition when they arrived by courier to where I live in Wexford and to date all plants are thriving - I had a few follow up queries also which were answered promptly by e mail. Bare root plants are much cheaper than potted hedging so the op would need to act fairly quickly as the end of March is usually the deadline for sowing bare root hedging.

Just used Future Forests to hedge the perimeter of a half acre plot. We used a mix of their traditional, 4 seasons and fruiting hedge with a load of beach thrown in for good measure. Also bought a mix of large tress. All plants healthy despite taking two weeks to plant all the hedges. We ordered over 500 plants in the end and just cover our plot which came to around €600 as some were 4ft.

All I can say is that do not try and plant them all in one day/weekend if there is only two of you. Make sure the ground is well prepared in advance.

Lastly is it not to late to plant rooted hedging now?

Details on here: http://grianan.blogspot.com/

Hedging will not keep the kids in, there will always be gaps. You would have to put up some kind of fence too.

Hi There,

Not being biased but I would suggest Kilcannon Garden center on the old dublin road in enniscorthy, wexford, ask for a girl called Nicola (she is on South East Radio for the gardening program), she will be able to advsie on exactly which types of hedging is suitable for your area, easy to manage and nice to look at. As for the kids - electric fencing Seriously hedging is a tough subject as we want to achieve different things (1) Wind barrier (2) Privacy (3) Nice looking, what we don't realise is evergreen, and thick bushes invite rats /mice. Even thick bushes only partically restrict the wind and are a buggar to maintain, therefore the only option in my humble opinion living in wexford myself is to plant fruit bushes, blackberries, redberries, gooseberry, loginberries, white berrires etc etc, some will grow tall, some wide, but the rewards are plenty.

I meant to also say that what Sherman said about lleylandii is very true, unfortunatily I planted several dozen about 3 years ago and I now want rid of them. Great in theory but definatily do not suit a garden that I am trying to develop. Native bushes always work well, but fruit bushes means that you can reap what you sow

Hi, we have a white thorn bush up the side of our driveway, it is shared with the farmer in the field, he has sheep in it. there is serious wind coming from the sheep side and I want to create a wind breaker plus be nice, so netmark, would you recommend the fruit bushes planted in front of the white thorn bush. Just the white thorn is very scranny and doesn't look great. How tall do fruit bushes grow, roughly?

Hi Abbica,

If the white thron is scanny and you do not like it, would the farmer like to get rid of it as well? Sometimes you don’t know until you ask??

Fruit bushes are bare in the winter and really only show leaves / fruit from April to October, varying they can grow from 4 ft to 40ft foot depending on the variety. I got really annoyed several years ago where all I was doing in the garden was maintaining, the wind will always get to you somehow if not the rain, so I decided to plant as many varieties of plants that I can eat. Fruit bushes only look good when in bloom, BUT, you can eat them. If I was trying to hide a plant like white thorn I would either burn it out or grow sweet pea over it alternatively plant tall grass’s along the driveway – they always look good but shop around for different plants. Do not do what I did and plant the same things up the driveway because they look hideous and I cannot wait to dig them out this weekend (10 weeping willows). I am replacing all tall hideous plants with unique flowing plants from www.plant-world-seeds.com along the drive, and planting native trees / scrubs along the border or the property (1 acre) interwoven with fruit bushes.

Regards

Paul

Go with the laurel, not the most attractive though, but keeps it's waxy green leaves in the winter, I think its pretty rugged.

Plant world is a great website, thanks. I can't believe you are going to throw away 10 weeping willows, I think they are amazing trees, plan on planting quite a few myself.

Laurel/red robin is my man I think, evergreen, put it as a border around the rest of the garden. But I can't touch the ditch on one side as it belongs to the farmer. I like the idea of sweatpea along is it though, I suppose some climber would suffice, would this be robust enough though to tackle it, it is pretty wild? I will just put a wind screed/bamboo maybe or something along patio side so at least we can sit out without needing an oxegyn tank to breath!

I was thinking silver birch on the other side of our drive, as it runs along an open field, we are like sitting ducks in a shooting range with regard to privacy. I was also thinking of blending in pink/apple blossom and those red beech type small trees. Then at the base, lavender and grasses? You liking or not liking?

Apologies for jumping onto this thread. I'm going to have a good look at FutureForest and PlatWorld sites, did not know they existed til now.

We have just had our garden re-done with new patio and sodded lawn. We have a long border wall, with a narrowish bed adjacent to it. I'd like to plant one or a selection of climbers. The ideal spec for them is that they would not need chicken wire to latch onto, the wall is quite rough. I'd like something that flowers, that has a nice scent, grows quickly and is not bare in winter. I know the answer is probably a mix of climbers but if anyone had any suggestions I would appreciate the advice.

Thanks!

I bought beech hedging from Hyland Nurseries in Oulart, Wexford last year, price wise very competitive but would also say the advice they give you on how to plant and after care etc is worth alot also. Would & have recommended them to others. No connection.

Op, Sweeney's garden centre on the New Ross to Wexford road ( just outside New Ross beside Sydney's Renault garage ) have a sign up advertising mature laurel hedging for sale if that's any use to you. Plants looked about 4' high but I was just driving past so I can't be sure - didn't see any price either though you can expect to pay more the bigger the plants.

David_Dublin said:

Apologies for jumping onto this thread. I'm going to have a good look at FutureForest and PlatWorld sites, did not know they existed til now.

We have just had our garden re-done with new patio and sodded lawn. We have a long border wall, with a narrowish bed adjacent to it. I'd like to plant one or a selection of climbers. The ideal spec for them is that they would not need chicken wire to latch onto, the wall is quite rough. I'd like something that flowers, that has a nice scent, grows quickly and is not bare in winter. I know the answer is probably a mix of climbers but if anyone had any suggestions I would appreciate the advice.

Thanks!

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(hydrangea petiolaris) would fit the bill - quick growing, lovely cream flowers, and does well on shaded/north facing walls. It does drop its leaves in winter though.

Otherwise, there are loads of very nice , with very different leaf shapes and colours - large, small, rounded, pointed, pure green, variegated yellow, silver etc. Several different varieties together would work really well. Ivy is very fast-growing, is native so provides food and shelter for birds, is evergreen and very tough.

If you put up some trellis you would greatly increase the scope of climbers you could plant - something like would be perfect - evergreen, very fast, white, scented flowers.

Sherman said:

If you put up some trellis you would greatly increase the scope of climbers you could plant - something like would be perfect - evergreen, very fast, white, scented flowers.

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I second that opinion. I saw them in Homebase recently, all growing nicely on a trellis. They looked fantastic.

I have recently used futureforests.net also and find them absolutely brilliant.

Hi,
I took at a look at the futureforests site - its looks really good. Just wondering has anyone tried the Mixed hedging, I am particularly interested in the Seaside Hedging. We live very close to the sea and as you can expect it is quite windy here so we would need something that would withstand the wind and salt in the air.
Someone recommend 'Sea buckthorn' which I've been told is evergreen and if you get male & female varieties they produce white and then red berries in Autumn & Winter - has anyone used this type of hedging and would you recommend it.

Thanks Sherman et al for your kind suggestions. Good luck louise on the hedge - I aspire to growing a Beech Hedge, but unfortunately it does not really cover any of your requirements.