Bush advice

Drew210385

Any ideas on fairly quick growing, thick ..but manageable bushes? We've just moved into a house and the garden walls are very low on all three sides and it's the same in all the houses around us (and would have been like this since the 1920's when the houses were built). Neighbours have been here for 30 years on one side and 40 years on the other and we don't want to be the ones that put up massive fences as soon as they move in …we'd rather block them up slowly over time haha!

I_have_spoken

the garden walls are very low on all three sides and it's the same in all the houses around us (and would have been like this since the 1920's when the houses were built)

Maybe there's a restrictive covenant on the height of fences/hedges that was put in place when the estate was built? Best speak to your conveyancer.

Davesnave

Covenants are made to be broken IMO, but yes, s-l-o-w-l-y....just not too slow.

How about beech or hornbeam? Double row, spaced 15" apart both directions. Not evergreen, but both keep brown leaves over winter if clipped yearly. My neighbours have 'disappeared' in 4 years flat.

It's the wrong season to plant, though. Do it in winter, when bare root plants will cost around £1 each.

I think my evergreen choice would be: eleagnus ebbingeii. Pricier.

Farway

Agree with Dave, a native hedge, maybe mix in some hazel as well?

lostinrates

How big is the garden? What kind of garden do you want? You might find a mixed 'hedge' boundary of small trees/ large shrubs looks less like a 'fencing or hedging people out' and more like informal garden planting. While a hedge can certainly get good thickness, we are currently enjoying looking at other evergreen broadleaf solutions mixed with other planting.

A few different types of eucalyptus, appropriate bamboo. ( the least in keeping choice aesthetically but so good for noise barrier its hard not to consider it IMO), holm oak, olive, mixed with some deciduous planting for thicker privacy in the months we are more outside....lilacs, robinia, Indian bean, foxglove tree. More there and more to come......:) We really wanted a filtered privacy screen, at higher level , rather then too dense a one though, at lower level we expect eventual planting to make it pretty dense in crucial seasons. We also were keen it felt like a tapestry of texture and colour not a long run of sameness, so knew we wanted different trees, and few coniferous solutions, while needing some year round privacy.

I_have_spoken

Pleached lime?