My house is on a corner plot, and the front garden extends around the
side of the house in a narrow strip about 8ft wide. Because there are
no windows on this side of the house and there is only a low wall a
foot or so high around the garden, it tends to be used as an extension
of the road and pavement by local kids playing football, sitting on
the wall and leaving crisp packets around, etc. The kids aren't a bad
lot as kids go, but I'd like to put a hedge in to reclaim the garden
and discourage them fromsitting/standing on the wall and damaging it.

The wall faces northeast and is in the shadow of the house for pretty
much the whole day. The soil is sandy, quite acid and free-draining. I
want something informal - I'm not really keen on neatly clipped hedges
- and prickly and sturdy enough to do the job, and reasonably fast
growing. Flowers/berries would be a bonus as it's a bit of a gloomy
dark site.

I was thinking pyracantha would fit the bill? Any other suggestions?
At the front of the house I have some escallonia which took ages to
get going but is now thriving, but it's not really prickly and also I
believe it prefers a sunnier spot?

Finally, is now an OK time to plant hedging shrubs? I gather that
autumn is the ideal time but I never got round to it last year and
want to get something in before the summer if possible.

Thanks for any help.