Using gorse as a hedge?

giantmutantbroccoli

I don't think I've posted in this bit of the forum before, so hi!

I'm curious about the possibility of using gorse and broom bushes as a hedge.

I share my garden with the guy in the downstairs flat, but it's pretty much split down the middle - he has his half, I have mine - and his half is looked after by folk from the council. The front bit of my half has been turned into a ridiculously huge nasty red gravel driveway (rented property so can't really do anything about this). The problem is that I'm right next to the local social club, and the driveway is right next to the car park for it. There is a wall but it's really low, just the exact right height for people to sit down while nipping out for a ciggie :rolleyes: Now I don't mind people sitting on the wall, but I would like a bit more privacy in my garden: at the moment you can see right into the back garden from the car park. Thus the hedge idea. I've planted a bit of bamboo there, but it's not that fast-growing and is pretty thin even in the clumps where it is growing. I thought it might be a good idea to try some hardy, native plants as a fsat-growing hedge, but I'm not sure if that's going to cause problems later on. What I'd like to know is:
1) Is there a law about having a spikey hedge? It's the gorse I'm worried about really.
2)If your neighbour planted a hedge like that, would you complain/would it annoy you?
3)How often do you think I'd have to prune it to keep it from taking everything over?
4)Has anyone tried this before?

choille

Gorse is quite nasty - and quite a pest here, but nothing to say you can't grow it. Broom grows quickly, as does Rogusa Rose (which is also jaggy).
Gorse seems to self seed alot so you'll have to keep on top of that - all these plants like acidic soil, so it will depend on what soil type you have if they are a success or not.

I wouldn't think you'd need to prune gorse that often - maybe twice a year?

laurel7172

I don't think there's any law against spiky hedges.

I'm not sure about gorse, but I think it likes the soils it likes, so if you don't have any growing locally you might have an uphill struggle. And when I was growing up, what we called broom didn't have thorns.

Native hedging is a really nice idea, and not very expensive either. And it's thorny if you include plebty of hawthorn and blackthorn

Google "native hedge mix" for details and suppliers.

SailorSam

I want to plant a mixed native hedge and looking at different sites these seem to be the cheapest.
Hedges and Hedging plants online - Hedges Direct UK

laurel7172

SailorSam wrote: »

I want to plant a mixed native hedge and looking at different sites these seem to be the cheapest.
Hedges and Hedging plants online - Hedges Direct UK

That's the ones! I ordered some native hedging earlier this year, but I couldn't remember who from.

I was very happy with them. The first delivery went into Preston parcelforce and never came out, but they despatched replacements immediately, and the plants were a really good size.

I'd paid for the bigger plants, and went white when a friend of mine, who works for English Nature and has supervised the planting of a lot of native hedges, told me to cut them back to a foot tall. It was the bigger rootstock I'd paid for, apparently. I figuredI was lucky to be getting free specialist advice and...cut most of them back. She was right. Wish I'd done them all!

MUMMYTO2BOYS

Berberis gagnepainnii have thorns like needles, they'd do the trick.

giantmutantbroccoli

Thanks guys, I didn't know gorse was fussy about soil types. There's plenty of it growing locally, but I don't know if the soil under the driveway is local or imported.
I'm not dead set on it being a spikey hedge, I just liked the idea of using local plants. We are thinking of the same thing, broom is the non-spikey one . I have the seeds already - picked them up while out on a conservation thingy in the local national trust park. We were chopping them down because they were enroaching on a bridge, and it was really hard work, thats why I thought there might be problems with it getting overgrown
The native hedging is a lovely idea if you have the cash, but I wouldn't be too keen on paying money for stuff that grows everywhere I could always shift some of the beech seedlings from underneath the tree to the border - they need to be dug up anyway.

Primrose

As previously said Gorse can be a nasty plant. An alternative spikey one which is decorative in Spring and Autumn is pyracantha with a mass of white flowers in spring which turn to either red or orange berries in autumn which are much favoured by the birds so you'd be helping wildlife as well. It's a fairly fast grower so once the roots are established (and it's not too fussy about soil type) so you can let it grow to the height you want for privacy and then keep it at that level. Gorse tends to grow outwards rather than upwards so might invade more of your space. Bamboo can be a problem once it's established as the roots can pervade concreted areas and could possibly undermine the foundations of your wall eventually.

ukmaggie45

We wanted a fast grower by the shed at the top of our caravan patio, to protect from the wind tunnel effect when the South Westerly winds blow.

Used eleagnus ebingei, it's variegated (sort of lime green and dark green), evergreen, has sweet scented flowers in winter.

It's worked really well for us, but be warned it is a very prolific grower! We hacked the top third off when we were there last, and will probably hack even more in the spring. (our caravan garden just gets looked after when we can manage and the weather is half way good)

You'll have more privacy if you have evergreens. While hawthorns and blackthorns (sloes) are nice native plants, they aren't evergreen. Of course at this time of year folks are unlikely to want to sit on a cold brick/stone wall (Mum always used to say it caused piles ) so maybe you won't mind that you can see through your hedge.