6-8ft hedge for privacy

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David_Dublin

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Hi. Looking for suggestions for a hedge to plant alongside a 4ft garden wall to give some privacy from passers by to front garden. Ideally would grow fairly quickly due to my impatience. It would only be about 10ft long so not too worried about maintenance, a few trims a year is fine.

Looking at Portuguese laurel, seems to tick all the boxes. Any other ideas? I'd love to be able to grow something colourful or fragrant through a hedge, but don't know is that possible.....thoughts?
 
Laurel can get out of hand quickly if it's not cut back, but will do what you want. Red Robin can be nice, but is over used in a lot of housing estates.

Unless you buy expensive mature plants, you'll need patience to grow a hedge over 6ft high. You'll need to clip them in early years to get them to fill out.

How would you feel about a bamboo hedge?
 
David_Dublin said:
Hi. Looking for suggestions for a hedge to plant alongside a 4ft garden wall to give some privacy from passers by to front garden. Ideally would grow fairly quickly due to my impatience. It would only be about 10ft long so not too worried about maintenance, a few trims a year is fine.

Looking at Portuguese laurel, seems to tick all the boxes. Any other ideas? I'd love to be able to grow something colourful or fragrant through a hedge, but don't know is that possible.....thoughts?
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What Redonion has said is true.
10ft is very little to maintain. Common or Portuguese would fit the bill. They grow strongly but you can cut them back very hard if they were ever to get out of hand.
At the end of the year over winter months good bushy bare root common laurel can be bought 5-6ft tall for around 35euro. The portuguese for same height would go for around 45euro. Lots of growers on Donedeal.
You would have instant cover at minimal cost. Four to five max. plants would cover the 10ft.
 
Thanks @KOW i hadn't thought of buying already grown. I like the idea of growing and being patient with nature, but i also like the idea of having privacy thru winter and into next year!

@RedOnion I think I'm done with bamboo. It just won't stop spreading and growing. We have it elsewhere and it grows up and put and all over the place.

I've read subsequently that Honeysuckle can grow nicely thru a hedge once the hedge had taken.
 
I would go with laurel.
Its evergreen, does not grow too crazy. One point to note ... The fumes from it are poisonous.
I've a 10 acre garden, so I know a bit about plants.
 
David_Dublin said:
i hadn't thought of buying already grown
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We did that with pyracantha but have had to nurse it along this year as its not looking great. Would have to wonder if, what to me is forcing the growth, is such a good idea after all. We have pyracantha elsewhere in the back garden (for security) and it grew no problem unlike the already grown stuff.

Get used to landscapers when it is fully grown knocking on your door to cut the hedge even this time of year when it is against the law.

P.S. I know nothing about gardening and hate it because it is so hard on the back :)
 
fistophobia said:
I would go with laurel.
Its evergreen, does not grow too crazy. One point to note ... The fumes from it are poisonous.
I've a 10 acre garden, so I know a bit about plants.
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Thanks, I hadn't known that. Seems OK in relation to sitting near-ish to it....I don't have 10 acres.
 
Common or Cherry Laurel is invasive and some councils in Ireland now ban it being planted in new builds. Most hedges are also void of wildlife.

I was in a well known country house recently and the adjoining woodlands was destroyed with laurel. According to staff it was never planted, it came in from a nearby housing estate. Much like Leylandii, I can many households removing these hedges down the road when the consequences are fully realised.
 
For 10Ft I would go bareroot Portuguese. I have 180meter of cherry laurel on two sides of my garden. One and half acre site. No problem keeping it at six/eight ft with trim twice a year, Lots of wildlife with it. The dark leaves are fab on a sunny day reflecting large amount of light around the garden.
I certain would not consider laurel for entire borders of town gardens.
 
RE: Laurel (all types apart from the bay leaf)

It is a noxious invasive non-native plant that produces cyanide from all of its parts. Stems, leaves, seeds contain cyanide, particularly toxic in the process of wilting: symptoms of laurel/cyanide poisoning: brick red mucous membranes, dilated pupils, difficulty breathing, panting, shock,

It is poisonous to pets, livestock and humans, small children particularly. It even poisons the ground it is planted in, rendering it barren in extreme cases.
 
Seriously! That sounds like the over reaction there usually is to a sprig of baby's breath within 3 ft of a wedding cake!

It may well be all of those things but lots of plants are poisonous, I don't see landscapers taking any extra precautions when cutting a laurel hedge, sounds like they should have breathing apparatus on at the very least. My daughter had hers cut recently, it's pretty long around nearly 3 sides of a half acre site. She has had pets with no issue, has children too and they are well warned not to eat anything in the garden that isn't handed to them like the raspberries.

Garden is absolutely lush with other plants so nothing wrong with ground either. The hedge is there about 20 yrs, long before she moved in and there are birds nesting in it too.

OP, I particularly like Lonicera Nitida for a hedge, reasonably fast to get high enough, you'll get to 6ft within a few years if you buy them 2/3 ft high to start with. Very easily trimmed as small leafed which I like and hardy, it is replacing a grisillinia hedge I lost in snow back 2010 or whenever that bad year was.
 
mathepac said:
RE: Laurel (all types apart from the bay leaf)

It is a noxious invasive non-native plant that produces cyanide from all of its parts. Stems, leaves, seeds contain cyanide, particularly toxic in the process of wilting: symptoms of laurel/cyanide poisoning: brick red mucous membranes, dilated pupils, difficulty breathing, panting, shock,

It is poisonous to pets, livestock and humans, small children particularly. It even poisons the ground it is planted in, rendering it barren in extreme cases.
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This is all scaremongering and mostly untrue.
 
Viburnum Tinus makes for an easy to maintain hedge with year-round interest. Even if left untrimmed it will only grow to about 12ft but looks nice if kept trimmed to around 6ft or so. But as it is a shrub rather than a tree it may not give you instant enough cover.
 
Thanks everyone for the responses. I've read up on all the responses and am still thinking Portuguese Laurel. I like the leaf, and it gives good cover and grows vigorously. Also looking at growing a lonicera periclymenum (honeysuckle) through the hedge when it has established
 
mct1 said:
Surprised griselinia hasn't been mentioned - it makes a thick evergreen hedge, good for nesting birds.
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I love griselinia, very easy cut as well and lovely colour but lost all my hedge back in snow/frost so that put me off it a bit, I still planted more but not in a crucial screening area!
 
Laurel is an awful hedge. Grows much much too thick. Is difficult to trim back. I would never recommend it to anyone in any garden circumstance. You will regret it. Go to a hedge nursery and look at hedges. Go for a small leaf variety that you can easily manage and be prepared to trim to keep it looking neat. Laurel is too vigourous, ugly, never looks neat, grows three foot thick and ten feet high. Remember hedges block out light. Beech or privet would be easier to manage and much nicer to look at.
 
Mamamia22 said:
Laurel is an awful hedge. Grows much much too thick. Is difficult to trim back. I would never recommend it to anyone in any garden circumstance. You will regret it. Go to a hedge nursery and look at hedges. Go for a small leaf variety that you can easily manage and be prepared to trim to keep it looking neat. Laurel is too vigourous, ugly, never looks neat, grows three foot thick and ten feet high. Remember hedges block out light. Beech or privet would be easier to manage and much nicer to look at.
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Would have to agree on beech. If you mix green and purple it will be a beautifully hedge during the growing season. Will keep foliage in winter so it gives good privacy all year round but changes colour with the seasond
 
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