Garden headge- best/cheapest

Leif

sobie wrote: »

Camellia's need Neutral to acidic soil so no good if your gardening on lime. Do a soil test to check.

The reason you shouldn't plant Camellia in sun is because if theirs been a hard frost overnight followed by a bright sunny morning it can blacken the flowers/ buds (always happens to my Magnolia!)

One side of mine will get some early morning sun, but the frost damages the flowers anyway, but they are worth having.

Leif

the_matrix wrote: »

2/3 foot wide AND low maintenance please.

You mean 2 to 3 foot wide?

The deciduous shrubs at the side of my house are fairly easy to trim with a cordless hedge trimmer. Laurel is not easy, as it is tough. Camellia might not be easy to prune, as you'd need to do it by hand, but it grows fairly slowly.

No-one has mentioned flowering Quince, lovely flowers, nice leaves, but a bit messy in winter and less privacy when the leaves have gone.

Another option is a trellis or open fence on which you train a climber such as Clematis. Depending on the light directions, you could also have shrubs such as Kerria against a fence.

DATMAN_2

laurel bush or thuja trees

grannyjo

Like the rest of us it seems you'd like a fairly instant hedge that is slow to get taller and wider. The trouble is the smaller slower growing takes forever to get to the height wou want- ie years or you buy very expensive larger plants that the nursery has had to spend years growing. Its a tough problem. If you go to the library and look at the Royal horticultal society encyclopedia of plants, they have categores of shrubs - divided into heights- it might be worth a look. The frost hardy fushias with smallish flowers can make a lovely show- bare in winter though. They are easy to control. They don't grow above about 4-5 feet. We also have a large leaved variegated eunomonous ( can't spell that- sorry) thaat is very controllable

tim_n

cheapest, walk round your neighbourhood, find a nice hedge you like, sneak a few clippings (you should ask of course)

Dip in root hormone and plant in pots somewhere not too warm but a bit moist until it warms up a bit.

Several of my mums friends used to visit stately homes exactly for this purpose...

tori.k

If it's a sunny sheltered spot that you want the hedge you can get evergreen ceanothus it think it nice to have a bit of colour

the_matrix

The spot is a large garden with DIRECT sunlight.

This "let's be environmentally friendly" thing is looking harder and harder.

Leif

the_matrix wrote: »

The spot is a large garden with DIRECT sunlight.

This "let's be environmentally friendly" thing is looking harder and harder.

Surely not, you can go for bare root plants and save money, or potted plants, and still pay less than for a fence. My side hedge is ~2ft wide, and easy to trim. Plus hedge trimmings can be shredded and used s mulch on the beds, thereby keeping down weeds, keeping in moisture and enriching the soil. My side hedge is full of sparrows, which are lovely, too.