Nick Treby wrote in
:

In article , JJE O'Connor
writes
I've moved into a house next to a busy main road. Does anyone one have
any advice on how I can minimise noise please ? I do not wanty to
build a wall or a fence. I was thinking of a hedge , in which case
what sort of hedge would be most effective ?


However, planting has a negligible effect on noise levels, unless you
can plant with rain-forest type density - ie many many plants, very
close together. The psychological effect is greater than the actual
numerical effect in terms of dB.

You would be better off building a fence/wall, then, if you don't like
how that looks, planting either side of it to hide it.

Might be worth considering a Devon/Cornish style wall bank which can be
grassed with a small hedge on top. They seem to be very effective against
noise, and look very natural and pretty with primroses growin up the side.

Along the North Devon Link road they wanted this effect, but creating earth
banks and stone walls to hold them would have been prohibitively expensive.

Instead, they lined up a row of those great square nets of stone they use
for sea defenses, dumped a bit of soil on the top, draped turf over it and
stuck young beech saplings on top. I thought this would never work, but I
have to admit it looks just like the thousand year old ones now unless you
look really closely, and must have been comparatively very cheap to do.

In a domestic setting you could water to get the turf and trees
established more quickly too.

Victoria