poppyseed wrote:
Hello,

I am new to gardening and would would very much appreciate your
advice.

I would like to plant a hedge around my front garden. It is currently
5m x 8m of lawn. The house is end of terrace and due to the very low
wall, the garden is quite exposed to people walking past, throwing
litter in etc. I was originally thinking of planting bare root privet
or laurel but realised that if I plant right up to the side of the
house, the roots could potentially cause problems.

So my plan now is to plant privet or laurels along the front garden
wall only. But am stumped about what to plant along the side running
up to the house. I love choisya ternata and would like to find some
other foundation plants that might go well with this and eventually
grow bushy / high enough to create a decent barrier, without being
invasive. Do you have any suggestions?


In the right conditions privet becomes invasive. It has a million berries
that are spread by birds and water and every one (it seems) germinates.

The garden is North West facing and not overshadowed so gets a
reasonable amount of sun in the afternoons/evenings. It's a fairly
quiet street so not too much traffic, but there is some. I'd also
eventually like to plant a tree in the garden, as well as maybe a
climbing rose for the front wall, and possibly some raised beds for
vegetables. But as an inexperienced gardener I would like to start
slowly and make the right choices!

Thanks very much for your help.

Don't start by planting. Start by planning. Draw a scale plan of the whole
area, consider sun, views, wind, use now and in the future, consider the
situation in all seasons of the year. There is no point (for example) in
planting a big tree where it will shade your vege plot or fill your gutters
with leaves.

David