Hornbeam will also stand up to wind and weather well and also takes wet ground conditions far better than beech. It's very similar in appearance and habit. You can keep it to a couple of feet depth quite easily. Laurel won't look well if it's clipped tight - it needs space - you'd be left with lots of branches and very little foliage. I think you're worrying a bit unnecessarily about yew and it would be the best option for your space, but the conical conifers are also ideal as their habit means very little maintenance in clipping. They'll take a few years to get to a decent height though.
Remember at this time of year you can get bare root hedging for delivery through autumn and winter - economical for a big area and establishes well.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Ok, thanks everyone. Much food for thought. The drainage is good so Beech would be ok there, and I expect Beech and Hornbeam are both very similar in hardiness as far as weather and cold is concerned?
The Yew is perfect, and I know I am worrying probably over nothing.. But the 'what if' keeps going through the mind in a totally uncompromising way where my kids are concerned.
Do Beech and Hornbeam handle cut backs fairly well and regenerate from older wood ok if necessary?
Big tick on the bareroot thing. Being a Yorkshire man if there's a few quid to be saved I'll be at the front of the queue. Have priced up with a couple of places and debating now whether to just do the lot and put a hedge on the other side of the garden too. I guess with the deciduous option that I can at least start getting a few more leaves together for leafmould.
Wonder what Hornbeam and Beech look like planted together? Time for a bit more googling.
They both take cutting back no problem and are quite similar - hornbeam has a more pronounced 'groove' on the leaf. If you want to do bare root I can recommend Hopes Grove Nursery which you'll find online. I've used them a few times - got my hedge from them last year for this new garden. The only drawback of bare root is that you need to have your ground ready for when it arrives and then you'll be planting in often unhospitable conditions to get it in! It saves a huge amount of money though, and is great if you have awkward bits to get plants in as you don't need such a big planting hole as you would with a pot grown plant. Choose slightly smaller plants too - around 60/90cm - which will establish better than big plants.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thanks everyone again for the advice. Decision made, I'm going for Hornbeam hedges down both sides of the garden as narrow as I can providing a nice lush green backdrop to the rest of the garden. I'll grow up the bottom of the garden with a various mixture of evergreen and deciduous shrubs.
My final reasons for choice after eliminating the Yew were that the leaf retention for at least some of winter, the slightly more hardy and tougher nature of the Hornbeam over Beech, the fact that HB develops it's leaves a month or so earlier and spring is my favourite time of the year to be out and about, and I was a little put off with Beech for the pests that used to make the Beech hedge at my parents a sticky horrible beast which I understand Hornbeam doesn't suffer from.
So, lots of 60-80cm bareroots, a large delivery of manure and a lot of digging should keep me busy for the next 6 weeks or so.
Does anyone have any suggestions for planting spacing of these plants? Mr Don obviously loves the things from reading the Complete Gardener but there are no specifics on this and I know how he tends not to agree with cramming in so many per metre. The retailers all try and say between 3 and 7 per metre, but they also steer towards the more as they obviously want to sell more plants.
Around twelve/eighteen inches is about right. I had a hornbeam hedge in a previous garden and it grew well at that distance and filled out to make a good hedge within a couple of years from bareroot. If you were doing a double row you'd use twice that amount and stagger them, hence the higher quantity.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thanks Fairygirl, that helps. Will go with the 33cm but the retailers do try and push you to 5 even for a single line. One that I got a specific quote from tried to push 7 per metre on me for a single row. Silly.
There's only one place I'm going to to get them I think as I need a few Mahonias too.
If your soil's in good nick when you put them in, they'll grow and fill the gaps well. If you were using very young whips I can see the point of planting more densely. I had a stretch between two mature trees which was very difficult to plant because of the roots - the hedge was slower to get going there, but looked fine within a few years once it all knitted together. It now looks great - I live round the corner from it ! The rest looked great within two years as I prepared the soil well.
Good luck with it
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
If you take a look at the hedging specialists online you'll see that it's quite easy to calculate how many you need and they get cheaper the more you buy. If you reckon on roughly 3 per metre, you'll need around 45/50 for your 15m stretch. Small hornbeam whips will be around 50/60 pence each so it wouldn't be expensive even with your delivery which would be under a tenner. You don't need to be too exact with quantities - there will be areas where you might struggle to get a plant in so the spaces will not always be identical. Once established, the whips will merge together no problem.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I'm pretty good with maths so once I'd decided on 33cm the rest was easy. I've added 3 extra as spares to round it up to 80. Got free delivery and 10% off albeit at a slightly higher starting price for the plants themselves. Should be here mid November and the skip and manure arrive midweek next week so prep happens next weekend. Good to go. Thanks a lot everyone. This is a pretty big project I've taken on for myself so I'll certainly be around the forum. I wish I had a better eye for design now, but I guess that's why people make a living out of designing and landscaping.
Posts
Hornbeam will also stand up to wind and weather well and also takes wet ground conditions far better than beech. It's very similar in appearance and habit. You can keep it to a couple of feet depth quite easily. Laurel won't look well if it's clipped tight - it needs space - you'd be left with lots of branches and very little foliage. I think you're worrying a bit unnecessarily about yew and it would be the best option for your space, but the conical conifers are also ideal as their habit means very little maintenance in clipping. They'll take a few years to get to a decent height though.
Remember at this time of year you can get bare root hedging for delivery through autumn and winter - economical for a big area and establishes well.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Ok, thanks everyone. Much food for thought. The drainage is good so Beech would be ok there, and I expect Beech and Hornbeam are both very similar in hardiness as far as weather and cold is concerned?
The Yew is perfect, and I know I am worrying probably over nothing.. But the 'what if' keeps going through the mind in a totally uncompromising way where my kids are concerned.
Do Beech and Hornbeam handle cut backs fairly well and regenerate from older wood ok if necessary?
Big tick on the bareroot thing. Being a Yorkshire man if there's a few quid to be saved I'll be at the front of the queue. Have priced up with a couple of places and debating now whether to just do the lot and put a hedge on the other side of the garden too. I guess with the deciduous option that I can at least start getting a few more leaves together for leafmould.
Wonder what Hornbeam and Beech look like planted together? Time for a bit more googling.
They both take cutting back no problem and are quite similar - hornbeam has a more pronounced 'groove' on the leaf. If you want to do bare root I can recommend Hopes Grove Nursery which you'll find online. I've used them a few times - got my hedge from them last year for this new garden. The only drawback of bare root is that you need to have your ground ready for when it arrives and then you'll be planting in often unhospitable conditions to get it in! It saves a huge amount of money though, and is great if you have awkward bits to get plants in as you don't need such a big planting hole as you would with a pot grown plant. Choose slightly smaller plants too - around 60/90cm - which will establish better than big plants.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thanks everyone again for the advice. Decision made, I'm going for Hornbeam hedges down both sides of the garden as narrow as I can providing a nice lush green backdrop to the rest of the garden. I'll grow up the bottom of the garden with a various mixture of evergreen and deciduous shrubs.
My final reasons for choice after eliminating the Yew were that the leaf retention for at least some of winter, the slightly more hardy and tougher nature of the Hornbeam over Beech, the fact that HB develops it's leaves a month or so earlier and spring is my favourite time of the year to be out and about, and I was a little put off with Beech for the pests that used to make the Beech hedge at my parents a sticky horrible beast which I understand Hornbeam doesn't suffer from.
So, lots of 60-80cm bareroots, a large delivery of manure and a lot of digging should keep me busy for the next 6 weeks or so.
Does anyone have any suggestions for planting spacing of these plants? Mr Don obviously loves the things from reading the Complete Gardener but there are no specifics on this and I know how he tends not to agree with cramming in so many per metre. The retailers all try and say between 3 and 7 per metre, but they also steer towards the more as they obviously want to sell more plants.
As it is I think I'm going to go for 3 per metre.
Around twelve/eighteen inches is about right. I had a hornbeam hedge in a previous garden and it grew well at that distance and filled out to make a good hedge within a couple of years from bareroot. If you were doing a double row you'd use twice that amount and stagger them, hence the higher quantity.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thanks Fairygirl, that helps. Will go with the 33cm but the retailers do try and push you to 5 even for a single line. One that I got a specific quote from tried to push 7 per metre on me for a single row. Silly.
There's only one place I'm going to to get them I think as I need a few Mahonias too.
If your soil's in good nick when you put them in, they'll grow and fill the gaps well. If you were using very young whips I can see the point of planting more densely. I had a stretch between two mature trees which was very difficult to plant because of the roots - the hedge was slower to get going there, but looked fine within a few years once it all knitted together. It now looks great - I live round the corner from it ! The rest looked great within two years as I prepared the soil well.
Good luck with it
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
If you take a look at the hedging specialists online you'll see that it's quite easy to calculate how many you need and they get cheaper the more you buy. If you reckon on roughly 3 per metre, you'll need around 45/50 for your 15m stretch. Small hornbeam whips will be around 50/60 pence each so it wouldn't be expensive even with your delivery which would be under a tenner. You don't need to be too exact with quantities - there will be areas where you might struggle to get a plant in so the spaces will not always be identical. Once established, the whips will merge together no problem.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I'm pretty good with maths so once I'd decided on 33cm the rest was easy. I've added 3 extra as spares to round it up to 80. Got free delivery and 10% off albeit at a slightly higher starting price for the plants themselves. Should be here mid November and the skip and manure arrive midweek next week so prep happens next weekend. Good to go. Thanks a lot everyone. This is a pretty big project I've taken on for myself so I'll certainly be around the forum. I wish I had a better eye for design now, but I guess that's why people make a living out of designing and landscaping.