what hedging? what benefits?
Hi everyone. Wanting to add some hedging to my new garden front and back. I live right on a busy main road corner and sick of traffic and people glaring in my house (as i have parrots etc that chill at the window) want my privacy back and reduce traffic noise and if possible absorbing pollutants.and some privacy in my back garden as large gapped femce from overly talkative neighbours Ive narrowed my search down to leylandii and/or Laurel probaly leylandii for front and laurel for back what spacing length and width for these hedgings? As id like perennials and shrubs in front of the whole length of the hedging. Also anyone recommend good cheap website for buying preferbly bare root hedging and other shrubs and perennials as wprking off a apprentice budget. Many thanks Sam
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Not Leylandii. Needs a lot of work to keep it from becoming a monster and will suck all the moisture from the soil.
for the fag ends of the aristocracy.
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Agree. Laurel > Leylandii, have you thought about Bamboo or any other alternatives?
Last edited: 22 February 2017 10:46:12
Punkdoc i thought that would you like to add to that? Any suggestions or?
I agree not Leylandii unless you really have to. Good contacts in back pages of GW (Marketplace) for suppliers all sorts available.
Google 'buy hedging on line' and you'll find half a dozen sites selling bare root hedging plants, and most have advice on the ideal spacing depending on the species. I wouldn't have leylandii either. They grow so vigorously, as punkdoc said, and also that makes it hard to stop them become very bare and dead at the bottom, thus not really solving the problem. There are smaller evergreens that make a nice neat hedge - like eleagnus or holly
Personally I would always go for a hedge with wildlife benefits, so I would choose something like Hawthorn.
for the fag ends of the aristocracy.
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
I dont like leylandii but im not sure why its a lot of work? A fast grower you mean? I think it may restrict what you can put in front of it sam 92, i have seen how dry the soil can be.
I have used a number of online hedging sellers - treesandhedging, beechwood 3fatpigs. They are cheap and ok. I think you will find evergreens dont normally come bare root, or at least mine didnt. Homebase have some leylandii for £6 each and a decent size for that, worth a look. I think 60-90cm apart but take advice from the supplier.
Laurel is ok, not very interesting. for evergreens, i myself went for holly, you get some much prettier varieties, and good for birds.
Okay i was skeptical at using leylandii as the rate of growth but main reason it was one od my options was apparently its good for noise reduction and absorbing polluntants as i live near busy traffic noise polluted area i liked the idea of photina red robin but changed my mind when seen how expensive doing a 100 ft long plus hedge would be between my front and back garden. Whichever hedging i decide i will be buying bare root at preferably 4-6ft the qualities i need it to have is noise reduction and polllutant absorbant and preferably evergreen and a fast rate of growth i also dont really want it getting more than 2ft wide as then into my borders. Many thanks Sam
Holly is a good compromise, if you prune it to encourage compact and bushy growth. You're after something evergreen after all, if you want to reduce the noise pollution year round. Not much will grow in front of leylandii due to the dry & low nutrient soil content, it acts as a sponge.
Last edited: 22 February 2017 11:00:03
You may want to think about putting in a root barrier membrane to make roots grow down rather than out into your borders. Our daughter "inherited" tall native hedging in her new garden, a couple of years ago when I tried to dig the borders to replant, full of roots almost impossible job, we had to resort to raised beds!