Praps someone can advise me too? ......have awful lawn on flinty coastal soil. It's bumpy and poor looking. Hardly any money to spare!! Also can anyone suggest where to look at buy instant hedging? Near Brighton, need some privacy! Garden is at front and side. Thanks
Lawns aren't compulsory. Sounds like a rockery might be more suitable?
I suspect 'instant' and 'cheap' are mutually exclusive as far as hedging plants are concerned. £2 on a packet of seed and wait 4 yrs, £20 on young plants and wait 2 yrs or £200 on larger plants and wait 1 yr if you're lucky. The figures will, of course, depend on the length of hedging you need. Which is....? And on what sort of hedge you want.
Maybe your local nursery (NOT garden centre) could advise on a local supplier? Or maybe your local council or other large organisation has over-ordered?
Trees don't like being underplanted, so the usual advice is to leave a bare patch around them anyway. If your neighbour hates that look, then she could cover the ground with an attractive mulch, which will eventually feed the tree anyway if she uses compost or chipped bark; but using pebbles etc would look better than bare earth.
If she's intent on planting underneath the trees and is prepared to keep watering there, then she could try grouping large containers under them (ie too big and heavy for thieves to take) with appropriate planting in them for the shady conditions.
For cheap front garden hedging, I'd recommend buying appropriate bare-rooted roses - good prickly stuff to deter unwanted intruders. Alternatively, make friends with someone with shrubs that need regular cutting down hard and use their prunings as cutting material to grow your own hedge.
The tall coloured stems of dogwood (which needs to be cut right down in early spring every year) will root almost everywhere - encouraged or not - and will grow as lavishly as the parent plant in only a few years. Meantime, they'll darken slowly from their initial bright red or yellow colour.
fairy54, go to a specialist for your hedging. It is amazing how quickly little sticks grow up. If you go to a specialist hedge supplier (not a garden centre) you will find the bare-root plants are incredibly cheap. But be quick the hedge planting season is nearly over.
Hedging. Have you thought of Lonicera nitidia? our £3, 3litre pots (bought from a supplier rather than a garden centre) have grown about 3 ft high and 4 ft wide in 2 years. They can be pruned easily with shears.
I planted a single pack of allium bulbs in a newly-landscaped garden some 15 years ago. Now they've spread so far that I'm going to have to dig them all up after they've flowered, to keep them out of the vegetable patch I've started nearby....
They're not the same as ramsons - the usual wild garlic beloved of foragers - and I'm not sure if this particular variety is edible.
Posts
Praps someone can advise me too? ......have awful lawn on flinty coastal soil. It's bumpy and poor looking. Hardly any money to spare!! Also can anyone suggest where to look at buy instant hedging? Near Brighton, need some privacy! Garden is at front and side. Thanks
Lawns aren't compulsory. Sounds like a rockery might be more suitable?
I suspect 'instant' and 'cheap' are mutually exclusive as far as hedging plants are concerned. £2 on a packet of seed and wait 4 yrs, £20 on young plants and wait 2 yrs or £200 on larger plants and wait 1 yr if you're lucky. The figures will, of course, depend on the length of hedging you need. Which is....? And on what sort of hedge you want.
Maybe your local nursery (NOT garden centre) could advise on a local supplier? Or maybe your local council or other large organisation has over-ordered?
Sorry - this may not be much help
Trees don't like being underplanted, so the usual advice is to leave a bare patch around them anyway. If your neighbour hates that look, then she could cover the ground with an attractive mulch, which will eventually feed the tree anyway if she uses compost or chipped bark; but using pebbles etc would look better than bare earth.
If she's intent on planting underneath the trees and is prepared to keep watering there, then she could try grouping large containers under them (ie too big and heavy for thieves to take) with appropriate planting in them for the shady conditions.
For cheap front garden hedging, I'd recommend buying appropriate bare-rooted roses - good prickly stuff to deter unwanted intruders. Alternatively, make friends with someone with shrubs that need regular cutting down hard and use their prunings as cutting material to grow your own hedge.
The tall coloured stems of dogwood (which needs to be cut right down in early spring every year) will root almost everywhere - encouraged or not - and will grow as lavishly as the parent plant in only a few years. Meantime, they'll darken slowly from their initial bright red or yellow colour.
fairy54, go to a specialist for your hedging. It is amazing how quickly little sticks grow up. If you go to a specialist hedge supplier (not a garden centre) you will find the bare-root plants are incredibly cheap. But be quick the hedge planting season is nearly over.
Hedging. Have you thought of Lonicera nitidia? our £3, 3litre pots (bought from a supplier rather than a garden centre) have grown about 3 ft high and 4 ft wide in 2 years. They can be pruned easily with shears.
Thank you for your suggestions. I will try hedge specialist.
Garden is far too big for rockery! But see where your coming from, thank you.
I'm quite jealous I love wild garlic I have planted a load in the wooded bit of my garden hoping for some pesto this year!
I planted a single pack of allium bulbs in a newly-landscaped garden some 15 years ago. Now they've spread so far that I'm going to have to dig them all up after they've flowered, to keep them out of the vegetable patch I've started nearby....
They're not the same as ramsons - the usual wild garlic beloved of foragers - and I'm not sure if this particular variety is edible.