wall v hedge
Richard Mccreary
Posts: 20
in Plants
Hi we have a wall in our front garden. Yesterday i noticed it was cracked and unsafe. I was able to push a large section over. I was going to rebuild it, but then thought should i take it down and replace with a hedge? We have a privet hedge between us and neighbour. Should a have a privet hedge at front or go for more interest with a mixed native hedge. Any other suggestions welcome.
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Think I'd rebuild a brick wall, then plant things for colour and interest. Wall will be instant height and whatever height you require, with perhaps a gate closing off the pathway.
Ideal opportunity to make sure it has hedgehog access tho!
I like walls and I like hedges - I'm wondering whether there's a way of constructing a wall that is suitable for your garden, which could offer more to wildlife than just a straightforward brick wall ...........
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
It depends ......
location? soil? sun/shade? sheltered or windy? size of garden? style of garden? is it going to be adjacent to a public path or what? how much maintenance you want to do and will it be easy to access to do it? Is it to keep things in/out? Are there particular birds in your area you want to attract? do you want something that flowers or provides interest? How high do you want it to be? slow growing/fast growing?
IF you can see it from the house windows and you're not needing it as an impenetrable barrier then I'd be inclined to go for something with a little more interest. Possibly even planting a mixed hedge. I really like escallonia because of the flowers and it's evergreen.
We have a lot of hedging of various kinds and some mixed and each dependent on those things:
escallonia, hawthorn, honeysuckle, copper beach, rose, catoneaster, berberis and privet and varigated privet. I suppose I could even add in lavendar as I use that as a low hedge to divide a bit of my garden.
Others I really like and have considered though are:
holly, pyracantha, catoneaster.
A large house near me has a standard rendered wall at the front boundary, but it has another on the inside forming a four or five foot raised bed. They've planted all sorts of perennials along the top and it looks lovely.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Clearly from the answers it's very much a matter of "it depends" and top of that list is personal taste and likes and dislikes or garden style.
For me, unless I needed something to instantly make the place inpenetrable my choice for a garden would always be a hedge. IF I needed "inpenetrable" then I'd go for a fence with a hedge growing so I could eventually take down the fence. I personally would never put any fence or wall right down to ground level because I'd always want hedgehogs etc to be able to get through. That's particularly important if you've a suburban garden because you want to consider loss of habitat and environment. Well I would anyway.
I've a drystone wall raised flower bed border as a separation from garden to fields. I like drystone because they're also great for wildlife. You can see it in the background of the photo that follows.
I like nice gardens but for me coming way up on my list of priorities before a lot of other considerations when I plant anything is whether it will help or hinder insects, birds and other wildlife. That means a hedge always trumps a wall.
Northern Lass it has a public footpath right by it, has full sun for half the day. It is sandy soil for good couple of feet in depth. Wind can be an issue as the fence between us and our other neighbour has blown down several times. Thinking of putting a hedge between them and us also as well as at the front. All the existing front wall is visable from living room window. We have only been living here just over a year so front garden will have a complete overall at some point and think a hedge would have far more interest then a plain old wall
The good thing about a wall is once it is up, it is up. Zero maintenance. Getting on in years now, I would go for a wall every time.
With a public footpath next to it, I would definitely go for a wall. You can always plant things to go in front of it your side. Have your neighbours all got walls too?