Posy, I agree it would look lovely, the house is on a surburban lane and just happens to back onto a piece of equestrian land - I might have given the wrong impression when I said backs on to open fields. Most of my neighbours have beautiful old yew hedges.
holly is a good one to have in a native hedge, its evergreen and spikey (good for visitor you don't want) has berries for the birds and you can even trim it for Christmas decorations!
dfa, thanks - and crikey, my garden is wide but shallow and was hoping to put hedge right against the wire and post new fence that has been put up. I hope that the horses don't nibble my hedge - I have a feeling that the owner has sensibly put a taped barrier a good distance from the boundary hedge.
I live in the North west of England and both Beech and Hornbeam grow very well here, You can find reasonable size Beech trees growing on top of hills a 1,000 ft above sea level, they are tough. In fact Beech is now colonising in the woods around here due its ability to resist shade, you see thousands of seedlings on th ground under trees. Back in the 1970's seedlings only emerged in occasional years so I guess that points to global warming. Hornbeam is much less common simply because the Victorians planted far fewer, but they also self seed as well.
nutcutlet - I wouldn't use laurel in this setting because of the animals but I have it at the moment on a boundary with the road and I have to say it is beautiful and looks beautiful all year round. Easy to keep trimmed - just 1.5 metres high and provides the best screen and wind break. I also have a standard Portuguese laurel that screens off a neighbours house and that is lovely too and a nesting favourite with our regular visiting mistle thrush.
I cannot picture in my mind a native hedgerow in Winter that is covered with honeysuckle - I have seen some covered with ivy but I wouldn't want to introduce anything so invasive.
We found that the honeysuckle wove it's way up through the centre of the hedge and came out at the top with flowering stems which then draped itself over the hedge. It really didn't take over, and the birds loved the berries.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
yes and so does mine.... Just been looking at some images of lonicera japonica halliana and that does look rather lovely when growing over and in between a hedge. When would I add that to the hedge I wonder??
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Posy, I agree it would look lovely, the house is on a surburban lane and just happens to back onto a piece of equestrian land - I might have given the wrong impression when I said backs on to open fields. Most of my neighbours have beautiful old yew hedges.
holly is a good one to have in a native hedge, its evergreen and spikey (good for visitor you don't want) has berries for the birds and you can even trim it for Christmas decorations!
dfa, thanks - and crikey, my garden is wide but shallow and was hoping to put hedge right against the wire and post new fence that has been put up. I hope that the horses don't nibble my hedge - I have a feeling that the owner has sensibly put a taped barrier a good distance from the boundary hedge.
treehugger - I thought holly was slow growing? All the holly trees I have had in the garden are snail pace...
I live in the North west of England and both Beech and Hornbeam grow very well here, You can find reasonable size Beech trees growing on top of hills a 1,000 ft above sea level, they are tough. In fact Beech is now colonising in the woods around here due its ability to resist shade, you see thousands of seedlings on th ground under trees. Back in the 1970's seedlings only emerged in occasional years so I guess that points to global warming. Hornbeam is much less common simply because the Victorians planted far fewer, but they also self seed as well.
definitely forget the laurel. Not only is it poisonous, though I doubt if anything would eat it, it's also an ugly thug and not native.
Holly is quickish once it gets going. The green ones are quicker than the variegated garden ones
In the sticks near Peterborough
nutcutlet - I wouldn't use laurel in this setting because of the animals but I have it at the moment on a boundary with the road and I have to say it is beautiful and looks beautiful all year round. Easy to keep trimmed - just 1.5 metres high and provides the best screen and wind break. I also have a standard Portuguese laurel that screens off a neighbours house and that is lovely too and a nesting favourite with our regular visiting mistle thrush.
I cannot picture in my mind a native hedgerow in Winter that is covered with honeysuckle - I have seen some covered with ivy but I wouldn't want to introduce anything so invasive.
my OH loves our laurel hedge.
I don't
In the sticks near Peterborough
We found that the honeysuckle wove it's way up through the centre of the hedge and came out at the top with flowering stems which then draped itself over the hedge. It really didn't take over, and the birds loved the berries.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
yes and so does mine.... Just been looking at some images of lonicera japonica halliana and that does look rather lovely when growing over and in between a hedge. When would I add that to the hedge I wonder??