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neighbours - fences vs hedgerows
MrMahonia
Posts: 82
does anyone have experience asking a neighbour to convert a shared fence boundary into a hedge instead. my garden is enclosed on both sides with fences (terraced house). i want to change them to be hedges. would look so muc better and open up a very narow garden.
hwat are the benefits of hedgerows vs fencing.
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Posts
Are your neighbours gardeners or low- maintenance types?
Nothing to stop you planting a shrub border on your side of the fence. Different shrubs provide a variation in wildlife habitat, so will attract a bigger variety of wildlife.
one side have a good garden, though i wouldnt say it looks like they spend a hgue amount of time in there. the other side, well its just a dog run full of poo.
thanks fidgetbones. well the issue is that the garden is very narrow. maybe 12 feet wide. so i wanted to remove the fences and replace with hedges, to give a sense of space.
i think by putting hedges against the existing fences, it would make the garden a whole lot narrower.
Maybe next door would not want a hedge narrowing their garden as well. One of my neighbours used to prune a beech hedge right back to the boundary, even though it left a row of are trunks on their side.
Pyracantha, trained on the fence, wouldn't narrow your garden. Evergreen, creamy/white flowers in spring then red or orange berries in winter depending on variety...You prune out the forward facing branches and train/tie the side ones to wire, fixed to the fence.
aha! bingo!!! just looked up pyracantha. thanks a lot for the suggestion. yes i would love a hedge for the wildlife factor. but perhaps a better idea to grow something flat against the fence so i dont ruffle any feathers. do you know of any other similar plants that would hide the ugly fences, but not take up a lot of the width?
With a 12ft wide garden I personally wouldn't go for Pyracantha. I removed one from my last property and also recently had one removed from my current place. The thorns on them are horrendous and even trained hard against a fence I think they will be trouble. Pruning, which you will have to do diligently to stop them taking over, will see thorns everywhere.
You could go for a cotoneaster instead of pyracantha. I have one of the larger varieties, please don't ask me which, and it happily produces flowers and berries whilst clinging to the fence and only intruding about 30 cm into the garden. You'd never be able to keep a hedge that thin.....not without upsetting it a great deal.
Dave - I have had pyracanthas for over 40 years with no pruning problems. Simply put the removed forward growing pieces into a container as you go along and wear thorn proof gloves.
It's like everything in gardening, a bit of effort is required if you want something.
Would other wall shrubs work like an Euonymous up a wall? I've seen them grow thinly. Or evergreen climbers?