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Advice on box hedge growing up wall
steeveehlRwJ8dzt
Posts: 6
Hello,
I'm after some advice with regards to a climbing box hedge (we are assuming this is what it is?) and how we go about replacing it.
We gave some bad instructions to the chap who maintains our garden and he thought we wanted the hedge removing from the house :-(. He got half way through before we stopped him as we only wanted it tidying up and the height reducing a bit. It was originally growing over the window you can see in the second picture.
We liked the hedge as it covered the rather drab looking brickwork, but I'm assuming the way it has been cut has now killed it off? You can see the main trunk has been cut. Is there any hope it'll recover?
If not, we are thinking about removing it, re-digging the base and putting some wood trellis up the house to about 2ft below the window slightly stepped off the brickwork. We are then hoping to replace it with a similar hedge .. the questions being:
- Any recommendations on what hedge would fit the job here? Ideally one that is fast growing as we can't face looking at the brickwork for that long :-)
- Can you buy hedges that are already a decent height to avoid the growing?
Thanks in advance.
Cheers
Steve
I'm after some advice with regards to a climbing box hedge (we are assuming this is what it is?) and how we go about replacing it.
We gave some bad instructions to the chap who maintains our garden and he thought we wanted the hedge removing from the house :-(. He got half way through before we stopped him as we only wanted it tidying up and the height reducing a bit. It was originally growing over the window you can see in the second picture.
We liked the hedge as it covered the rather drab looking brickwork, but I'm assuming the way it has been cut has now killed it off? You can see the main trunk has been cut. Is there any hope it'll recover?
If not, we are thinking about removing it, re-digging the base and putting some wood trellis up the house to about 2ft below the window slightly stepped off the brickwork. We are then hoping to replace it with a similar hedge .. the questions being:
- Any recommendations on what hedge would fit the job here? Ideally one that is fast growing as we can't face looking at the brickwork for that long :-)
- Can you buy hedges that are already a decent height to avoid the growing?
Thanks in advance.
Cheers
Steve
0
Posts
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Thanks for the advice JennyJ - would you suggest putting a frame for it to climb up against, or leave it as is? It looks like it's been tied back at a few points , including the top where it has been cut.
We would ideally like it to be about 6 bricks down from the upper window. I'll try the tip with regards to getting some water in there
There are much nicer plants to grow up the front of your house but you will need to ensure that there is sufficient depth and quality of soil.
What sort of plants would you recommend if we do replace, and are there any variations that we can buy that are at an already established height?
I can fix the depth / soil challenges as more than happy to dig it out, and there is a reasonable soil base beneath that concrete. I can add some new topsoil down to a reasonable depth as well.
Assuming that the front of your house gets sun and you want something that is evergreen and reasonably fast growing then Griselina littoralis might suit, provided the location is fairly sheltered and you don't get harsh winters. They are easy to maintain and available from most hedge specialists in various sizes.
I would suggest that you remove your laurel whenever it suits you and prepare the site by widening the bed and improving the quality of your soil with organic matter and then plant in late summer/early autumn. A new shrub will need constant watering and attention if planted at the moment, but you can do so if you keep an eye on it!
I'm sure there will be many other suitable suggestions which other members can offer. Cotoneaster may be an option but I've never grown it, and ordinary privet will give you a good green screen, it can be evergreen depending on location, but can lose some leaves over winter. I hope this helps.
Portuguese laurel needs reliably moist soil to thrive.
The problem with wanting something 'fast growing' is that they rarely stop at a convenient height. Many cotoneasters would be good, but pick an evergreen one, and make sure it isn't one of the little ground covering types. Easy to maintain, and they're mostly self supporting. C. latifolius is good, or C. franchetii.
You can certainly buy already established, mature shrubs/climbers, but - they won't be cheap, and they're much more work to establish Now is not a good time for that anyway because of watering, even in reliably wetter parts of the country, unless you have enough experience.
Autumn through winter is the ideal time, and you would need to really work on the soil to get it in good condition too. It's very easy for things to fail due to poor conditions.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...