Hedging help

CammyGR

Hello all.

My next door neighbour has built a fairly ugly 'man cave' in his garden out of breeze blocks. Rather than get bent out of shape or start a pointless feud with somebody I might live beside for decades, I've just decided that it's an opportunity and it's made my options for what to do at that part of the garden much much simpler. I need a hedge.

My needs/wants are:

• Something that's got all year foliage
• Preferably not a uniform green
• Must reach 2m high
• Needs to grow to size fast

My situation is:

• East Lothian (so think cold in winter but fairly dry year round as far Scotland goes)
• Against a north facing slated fence that gets sun
• Winter: Early morning and late evening partial shade with full shade during the day.
• Summer: Full sun early to mid-morning and late afternoon with partial shade during the day
• Clay soil
• Can get a bit wet but not boggy.

I've had a few options suggested to me:

Photinia Red Robin (I don't really want to wait 3/4 years for this to grow sufficiently to block the lovely breeze block vista
Yew
Plant cherry blossom trees and fill the gaps with shade loving shrubs

I'm really not sure and thought some kind soul might be willing to help here.

Many thanks.

Posy

How deep from front to back can it be? Anything that grows to 2m fast is likely to go on growing. How much work do you want to do cutting and shaping it? Photinia may not cope with the clay. It's worth looking at what grows well in near-by gardens to get an idea of what will succeed. Oh, and is it acid or alkaline clay?