Hi, i have a 25m long by 8ft hight hawthorn hedge which looks very old, my problem is that parts are very bare and from the ground to about 600mm high there is not much hedge at all just trunks. Also im next to a road and you can see right through the hedge most of the year, my question is what can i do to fix this, i dont want to take it down so is there some sort of evergreeen hedge i could plant in between? Any suggestions would be helpfull.

thanks mark

How about some laurel hedging if you really want evergreen... or perhaps just add some more British native plants for a native hedge which although it would not be evergreen would be much thicker.

Hi, no i not wanting to spend much, i read that you can plant beech hedge in between the hawtorn, has any one see this? is it a god idea?

Yes, I think it would be. Of course beech isn't evergreen but it does look good over winter when it keeps its leaves until the new ones start to form. You might want to think about experimenting with cutting back some of the hawthorn very hard (perhaps one in every two or three plants) and seeing if it will re-shoot from near the ground - I think it probably will do. If it works you could do the same thing to some more the following year. Get bare rooted beech from a local nursery - much cheaper than in pots.

I agree. I used to have a hedge that was mixed hawthorn and beech in my front garden, and Janet is right. The beech held on to its dead leaves right through the winter so it still worked as screening.

If you are going to plant beech into your hedge, use slightly larger beech hedge plants. (not the one year onld ones). Hawthorn hedges have greedy root systems, and your will want to buy bare root beech hedge plants that have well developed root systems. At least 2 years old and better 3.

Good luck