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Hedging

hi ,
i have (luckily) bought a beautiful old house with a lovely history and 4acres of natural woodland surrounding it.
I Need device as to what to plant as a border hedge on the woodland perimeter.
local people have used my woodland as a cut through, unchallenged, for years, so I need something that will grow in partial shade, low maintenance, evergreen and will keep people out. What’s the opinion on blackthorn - I like the idea of wildlife friendly,
thanks in advance,
lisa
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Hi Lisa
Both Blackthorn & Hawthorn are superb hedging material ; excellent wildlife value too .
Personally I wouldn't bother with blackthorn, they can be a nightmare if they start sending suckers up and self seeding where you don't want them. Hard to dig out when they take hold as well.
Hawthorne the best of the two in my opinion, neither are evergreen.
Could try Holly ? they are evergreen
I like Beech and Yew hedges , the sparrow's love my beach hedge
Last edited: 07 January 2018 22:55:07
beech is good, you can keep your side nicely trimmed and let the outside grow long, plus is a good wind break.
you could just grow some waist high holly, no one will step over it and you keep the views, plus bits for Xmas wreaths!
My vote is for holly ... it's a natural woodland plant so will cope with any shade and roots from the established trees and can either be clipped to form an impenetrable wall of year round greenery, or you can have a looser prickly hedge with all the benefits of berries for Christmas.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I would suggest holly too.
Best of luck to anyone trying to get through that!
They'll cut through any plant life. You need a fence.
Yes, get some wire / livestock fencing. And plant beside, and hopefully in time the fence will get lost in foliage.
I love the idea of yew, holly or box. My next garden I plan to go all out for holly. But perhaps that's me speaking from the depths of 'winter'.
Last edited: 09 January 2018 22:54:56
I have blackthorn in the hedge, and although I love it, it suffers in shade. If you have enough space, could dogwood do the trick? I'd have thought it would make a nice informal hedge.
Last edited: 09 January 2018 22:57:39
Woodland certainly should be enjoyed. Conveyancing is pretty useless from my experience. There's land close by me that people want to hold claim. Yet it is no ones. These days it has to belong to someone! If it is seldom walked, or doesn't hurt, then why barriers? We need more commons.
Last edited: 10 January 2018 22:14:04