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Planting advice - beneath trees

mike164mike164 Posts: 13
edited February 2019 in Plants
Hi, I've just moved house and have a large garden which I'm keen to learn how to look after. I started late last year clearing a huge area of brambles and weeds on one side of the garden that had the odd tree growing through them and planted a long row of hawthorn hedging.  

I'd like to plant some bushes in the area behind the hedge i've planted to give me some privacy from the neighbour's garden and give it more interest. Currently it's mostly ivy running down to a drainage ditch.

i've thought about dogwood, holly, hazel and field maple for starters and lots of bulbs this autumn. Any advice would be welcome.

The eventual height of the hawthorn hedge is still to be decided but I like the idea of being able to see the shrubs behind the hedging.

The garden is full of rabbits too. Ideally plants that are good for bees or or pollinators.

Thanks :)

The new hedge, most of the bare soil is where i've dug out brambles. 



The view of the hedge and area that needs planting with the neighbour's garden behind the trees

Posts

  • Ladybird4Ladybird4 Posts: 37,906
    Hello Mike. I personally would hesitate about planting other shrubs behind the hawthorn unless you intend leaving a large gap. Competition for nutrients and water will make establishing other shrubs a somewhat difficult task. If you were thinking of a native hedge you have chosen the right plants and they could have been interspersed with your hawthorn.
    Cacoethes: An irresistible urge to do something inadvisable
  • mike164mike164 Posts: 13
    thanks @Ladybird4 - there is plenty of space and the gap will be at least 1.5 m between the edge of the hedge when more mature and the line of shrubs.
  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,700
    That space of 1.5 meters will be too small to plant other shrubs. It may seem tempting now whilst your Hawthorns are small, but in a couple of years' time, it will be very different. With your current spacings for your new hedge, any future plantings, especially shrubs should be to the front of the Hawthorns.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Hawthorn grows like the clappers.  We planted a hedge of whips one winter and the following year they grew 6'.  We cut them back to 3' that autumn to encourage them to thicken out and ended up with a hedge we maintained to 6' high and nearly as deep - great windbreak plus privacy and loads of wildlife in it.   

    Be patient and give it time, space and resources to grow and you will be glad you didn't crowd it with shrubs.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • mike164mike164 Posts: 13
    thank you @Obelixx, @Borderline


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