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Native Hedge - How to rennovate?

winlovewinlove Posts: 5
in Garden design

Hi,

I am hoping that someone here can give some advice on how to improve a long-established but recently neglected hedge. The aim is to improve privacy whilst giving wildlife a chance.

The hedge forms a boundary with a public playground, which overlooks our garden. I am pretty sure the hedge is a fairly naturally arising combination of native species, but being a novice gardener I am not at all sure.

I am guessing that the first step for improving it is drastic pruning, but I was wondering if there are any particular climbers that would grow rapidly and add density that could supplement it. Dog Rose? Rambling Rose? Clematis?

Or are there particular species of shrub or tree that work well as in-fill?

As we have a toddler, things that are neither especially spiky nor poisonous would be good!

Advice welcome and appreciated,

Crawf

 

Posts

  • John MacJohn Mac Posts: 32
    You might try ‘laying’ it.https://www.hedgelaying.org.uk/. I did a bit of this years ago when I lived in Sussex. 
    A man on a croft.....
  • winlovewinlove Posts: 5
    There doesn't seem much structure to lay?
  • John MacJohn Mac Posts: 32
    Ah, no, there isn’t. Maybe let it thicken over the season until you are happy with it, you could plant old roses round about and through it, things like Rosa Rugosa, I have a hedge of https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/fru-dagmar-hastrup which is gorgeous
    A man on a croft.....
  • winlovewinlove Posts: 5
    Just wondering if this - whatever it might be that we have elsewhere in the garden - would be suitable for planting at the bottom of this hedge? Thinking we might only need 3 feet of height, and it seems pretty dense....
  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286
    It would help to identify the individual species making up the current neglected hedge. Management of neglected hedges can span from species that could be taken to ground level, to those that need a much more considered approach. Then those in-between, for example, you could take overgrown blackthorn down to say about 1 foot under the desired final height and turn it back into a formal hedge, really quite rapidly. Any advice depends on exactly what is there. Though generally it is possible to save a neglected hedge line.
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