We're about to go hazel in the hope we will have some nuts one day and hazel isn't to bad to lay for thickening up the growth, The much beloved doesn't know it yet but I'm going to weave some honeysuckle and some roses through it too!
Thank you all for your replies ! Some very interesting ideas there. We already have a 200 ft mixed hedge that we put in two years ago and a 100 ft copper beech hedge. Having experience of a very long holly/hawthorn hedge at a previous house, we have had enough of prickly cuttings to dispose of I'll try to make a list of all your suggestions and then sit down with OH and make a decision. We're waiting for our man with the JCB to come to take the old hedge out plus a few tree stumps so will have to make a decision fairly soon. We just want somethng low maintenance as we have a lot of hedge to look after Thank you again !
Can I suggest investing in a leaf blower if you don't already have one..? Whenever I clip my yew hedge (next to a gravel drive - eek) I find its all very well raking up the large bits, but the teeny bits are a pain, so I blow them under the hedge and forget about them! Having thought about it some more, I think I'd plump for the lonicera. xx
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We're about to go hazel in the hope we will have some nuts one day and hazel isn't to bad to lay for thickening up the growth, The much beloved doesn't know it yet but I'm going to weave some honeysuckle and some roses through it too!
That sounds absolutely gorgeous Moonlit Hare, and it'll be great for wildlife too.
And you can take some hazel rods out for your runner beans
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thank you all for your replies ! Some very interesting ideas there. We already have a 200 ft mixed hedge that we put in two years ago and a 100 ft copper beech hedge. Having experience of a very long holly/hawthorn hedge at a previous house, we have had enough of prickly cuttings to dispose of
I'll try to make a list of all your suggestions and then sit down with OH and make a decision. We're waiting for our man with the JCB to come to take the old hedge out plus a few tree stumps so will have to make a decision fairly soon. We just want somethng low maintenance as we have a lot of hedge to look after 
Thank you again !
Can I suggest investing in a leaf blower if you don't already have one..? Whenever I clip my yew hedge (next to a gravel drive - eek) I find its all very well raking up the large bits, but the teeny bits are a pain, so I blow them under the hedge and forget about them! Having thought about it some more, I think I'd plump for the lonicera. xx