Hedge/Shrub Divide

gary.bland

My wife and I have just bought our 'forever' home in North Mid Suffolk. We have an acre garden and we want to make the bottom third of the garden a secret garden. We would like to grow a dense evergreen divide, but one with edible berries/fruit/flowers both humans and animals. We would like the divide to be about 2 meters or a little more high. It is likely to be 20 meters across. What are our best options please.

Gary & Debbie

robairdmacraignil

Not much experience with these myself but some options to consider might be a variety of plum yew like Japanese Plum yew (Cephalotaxus harringtonii), silverberry (Eleagnus pungens), Ebbing's silverberry (Eleagnus x ebbengei)(which I have just planted a couple of) or something I have tried is a hedge of Himalayan strawberry (cornus capitata) which seems to be growing well but will take years to flower and fruit and might be difficult to source plants for. I grew mine from seed I collected from fruit on trees on the grounds of the local university.

Another option might be snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus).

Fire

... and Elaeagnus umbellata.

The tricky thing is the evergreen part. You might try a high, dense native holly hedge, but the berries aren't much good for people. Or yew, which is evergreen - berries good for birds, very bad for people...

Dovefromabove

I think I’d plant a mixed hedge of native plants, some evergreen such as holly, mixed with hawthorn, hazel, beech and the wild dog rose, Rosa canina.  

That’s what I planted when I lived in North Mid Suffolk ... heaven on earth ❤️ 

Joyce Goldenlily

Check very carefully on the vigour of any plants you fancy. Anything described as vigorous or quick growing will potentially turn into a difficult to control forest and you will be moving house to get away from it before many years have passed.