Having a wall removed & hedge installed

dgerrard

Hi there!

Q: Out front, our neighbours have a nice hedge with lots of birds in it & gives a generally lovely aspect.  We have a crappy brick halfwall.  I want to know the feasibility/cost of having the wall removed & having a full hedge installed.  Can you buy a full-grown hedge?  Or will we have to grow our own from "saplings" or whatever the hedge equivalent is?

Any advice much appreciated!  We're in the Bromley area.

Pic:

eDicky

I wouldn't remove the wall, to me it's quite elegant surmounted with the ironwork and matching gate. I'd plant suitable bush/tree varieties inside the wall, to grow up with their lower stems and gaps shielded by it.

I don't think you could buy a full grown hedge such as the one nextdoor, if you prefer that sort of thing, but it may only take a few years to grow.

Dustyevsky

Buying a hedge MSE style is something you need to do in the winter months when plants are resting and you can buy bare rooted, though some posher hedging, like Osmanthus burkwoodii is available potted all year. Buy something classy like that, using the money saved by not knocking down the wall!

A few ideas here, but note, many are not evergreen, some are prickly, too big, too small, slow growing etc:

https://www.hedging.co.uk/plants/by-attribute/flowering-hedges/#sortBy=p.price&sortOrder=desc&mode=append

twopenny

I love your wall too.
It would benefit from a gentle pressure washing as would the paving. A hedge half the size of your neighbours would show off the ironwork.

To plant a hedge there paving and base would have to come up and the soil dug a foot or two and the soil improved.

A half sized hedge would be feasible quite quickly, a year or two to get the spaced plants to grow together.

Yes, you could buy a ready made hedge. Still preparation much wider and your looking at an enormous amount of money for someone else to spend years growing it, digger to move it, a lorry to bring it and professionals to plant it. Would still take a year or two to grow together. Then maintenance.

What would look really nice and the hedge dwelling birds is a small tree or two. They would hop into the branches and sing for you.
Sorbus or something with berries the birds like 

baser999

Keep the wall, plant inside it. The wall will stop all sorts of crap blowing into your front garden 

Slinky

Does that look like privet?  Seems to be popular with sparrows in a local street. A species in decline, I track the birds in our garden, in 4 years we've never had a house sparrow visit that I've seen.

baser999

I reckon it’s privet. The other thing to bear in mind if OP has something similar is that if OP keeps their hedge cut back and tidy and the neighbour doesn’t, it’ll just make OPs look scruffy. Keep the wall and plant some other variety of shrub inside

Katiehound

When I was growing up we had a privet hedge- it always seemed to need cutting! Then a bush in the middle died! so it looked weird. Hedges do need care and attention and cutting at least twice a year: hard work. I was quite pleased when my griselina hedge died one winter.

I'd keep the wall and plant inside.

As said before bare rooted plants are the economic way to go.

I have a small Japanese crab apple on dwarf rooting stock- covered in flowers now. rarely see any kind of birds 'though- too many cats around!

Dustyevsky

Your neighbours may have a tall, thick, hedge there, but they've lost their view, and the view's a pleasant one. I'd be wary of shutting myself in like that. Up to the height of the pillars would be fine for a hedge or informal planting, so nothing too rampant is needed. You have mature oak trees nearby, so there will be birds around. If you want to see them regularly, then a feeding station and a bird bath is the way to go, but consistency in providing those facilities is required, as it takes time before a feeding/bathing routine builds up.

ka7e

You can buy ready-made hedges, but they cost between £160 and £250 per metre! I would keep the wall, dig out a bed and plant young "whips" of Cotoneaster lacteus (evergreen,flowers in the spring and lots of berries in winter to attract birds) or Lonicera nitida (evergreen or there is a gold variety) as both are fairly fast-growing.