Hedging Help

[Ricky_1961]

Hello,

Planning on planting some hedges in my front garden, but my head is spinning from the choices, and problems faced by certain hedges.

I've got 13metres to plant and have looked at...

leylandii - have heard these can grow out of control very quickly?

Laurel - Have read these stop growing at about 8ft, but can be poisones and theres loads of cats around, so wouldn't want to do that

Ligustrum - seems good, but not evergreen?

Basically, I want to be able to maintain an evergreen hedge at about 1.5 metres... maybe 1metre wide?

Anyone got any ideas or advice? Have really confused myself...

Cheers

 

[chris1982]

How about Thuya? They look somewhat similar to Leylandii and come in different varieties that grow to different sizes (I think). They grow relatively quickly, so keep them at 1.5m you will need to trim them once a year. The downside is that when they get older (think 15 years) they often go brown on the inside with only the outer branches staying green.

 

[StephenStephen]

I've never heard of a cat getting poisoned by laurel.
Beech makes a popular hedging plant. If clipped it doesn't shed its leaves, and provides a year-round dense screen, which provides a great habitat for garden birds.
Personally, for a hedge that short I'd go for something that doesn't grow too fast or have the problem of never growing back from hard pruning, so I wouldn't go for leylandii, but I would go for beech or holly. you can probably just about still get them bare rooted in the next week or two - much cheaper

 

[London Mike 49]

How about this https://www.hedgesdirect.co.uk/acatalog/griselinia_littoralis.html
I planted these as a hedge and although not yet fully established, I'm very pleased with them.

Mike

 

[Ricky_1961]

Hi, thanks for the advice. I'll do some reasearch on all of those suggested tonight.

Cheers

 

[Alec_t]

Definitely avoid leylandii . It can't grow back from old wood, so if a section gets damaged or over-pruned you're left with a bare patch. Have you considered privet? Old-fashioned maybe, but easilly controlled.

 

[Diver Fred]

Blackthorn...

But I guess it depends on how much you like your neighbours / neighbourhood tykes...

 

[Ricky_1961]

Thank-you all again for your help/advice.

I'm so glad I posted here, I did not know Leylandii doesn't grow back from hard pruning, although think about it a neighbour down the road has lots of brown patches on there hedge.. guessing thats why, it looks horrible. So thats off the cards completely.

Stephen - I probably am being silly about the poisonous nature of it, as cats aren't likely to eat them, but am very fond of cats It would be back on the cards, but thanks to some posters on here, I think I've found my hedge!

The Beech is definately an option - thank-you, but I'm leaning towards the Griselinia Littoralis. It looks really smart, and I'm guessing with that one, I can chop back near as much as I want over time and it will come back?

 

[r896neo]

Absolutely avoid leylandii, as i landscaper i am continually dealing with ones that have become too wide and tall for homeowners to cut themselves. They need cut well twice a year if they are to remain the same size, otherwise they will get thicker and taller by a few inches every year.

I am a big fan of common laurel, its fast growing and can be pruned super hard with no ill effect. Its one drawback is that large leaves get sort of serrated when trimmed with a hedge trimmer and they can look unsightly for a few weeks after trimming, its not a big deal or very noticable but some people dont like it.

Portugal laurel is also very good and a dark green smaller leaf a bit like a bay tree, not quite as fast.

Griselinia is the fastest of all the evergreens and will grow about a foot a year. Its pretty indestructable but the colour is not to everyones taste. The yellowey hue is not as nice to my eye as green laurel. It will be more green in full sun, in shade it gets very yellow. It is in theory tender but you need a proper -20 type of cold before it would come to much harm once its established in my experience. If you like griselinia there is a varieagated variety too.

Beech is lovely but hard to get established and therefore slow for the first few years.

Holly is probably the nicest hedge for me but again slower to establish than the gris or laurels and its spikey so not fun clearly up cuttings.

The berries are the posinous part of a laurel but on a hedge because you trim it once a year it never sets flowers and therefore never really produces berries. I have never heard of any man or beast being poisoned by them.

 

[Gerrydelasel]

Hornbeam is another option. It looks almost the same as beech (and is immune to honey fungus which is why I chose it). Plant in October.