A friend has a cotoneaster hedge which has fireblight. Its total demise
in the affected parts seems inevitable since it is opposite the gates of
a secondary school and miscreants hit the hedge with sticks on a daily
basis so the bruised bark is easily infected. I am not sure if anything
except perhaps rosa rugosa and bramble can stand up to this abuse. Maybe
pyracantha would but I expect that would succumb to fireblight too. I
suspect to survive it has to be viciously spiny. Holly is probably too
slow growing so I am at a loss what to suggest. In an ideal world the
new hedge would grow to 2m high 0.3m thick and stop.

My question is what other suitably robust hedging material do people
think would survive in this sort of environment and hold its own without
either growing far too vigorously or losing to physical attack. Ideally
I would like to plant the replacement through the skeleton of the
existing dead parts of the hedge. If the low wall ever became accessible
to sit on things would be much much worse.

Incidentally when I was at school there were litter squads sent out to
tidy up after the icecream van, but in this location it appears that the
school flouts the local bylaws with gay abandon. There are notices on
lamp posts warning of fines for dumping litter but surrounded at the
base by knee high piles of curry trays, ice cream wrappers and alien
crisp packets. The mess then blows into surrounding gardens.

Regards,
Martin Brown
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **