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Flowering hedge - what to plant?

SarSpudSarSpud Posts: 46

Hi, I'm looking for suggestions on what to use to plant a flowering hedge. We have a long stretch where our garden borders a road, the road is lower than our garden, there's a stone wall but the ground on our side meets the top of the wall so anyone walking past can have a good nose and our dog regularly gets to bark at passers by, so I'd like to plant a combination of flowering plants to create a screen.

I don't want another big thick hedge that needs cutting (we already have box, beech and hawthorn on other sides of the garden) and we regularly get cows walking past that will stop to eat any grass growing along the top of the wall, so whatever we plant needs to be cow proof? Help? 

Posts

  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546

    Pyracantha, Rosa sericea pteracantha? 

    Seriously though, if you plant any shrub slightly into your your garden, so that the base is beyond the cows' reach, it will have room to develop. The only bits that get eaten will be the ends of lower branches on the road side. You will see the other side and have your screen. My Rosa rugosa, that overhangs a fence, responds to regular pruning by sheep by producing lots of bushy side shoots!

  • If cow grazing is an issue maybe something like Blackthorn? Nice flowers, and if the weather is nice you may even get some Sloes off it?

  • WelshonionWelshonion Posts: 3,114
    You may be better off asking the farmer to put a wire along the bank to stop the cows grazing the grass/shrubs or worse, using the wall as a scratching place. They can destroy a bank in no time.



    They will also pull out small newly planted trees or shrubs. Ensure you don't plant anything toxic to cows - few plants are, but rhodies are.



    If the farmer won't co-operate put up your own wire. They will respect it if they think it is electrified.
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