I'm very new to gardening and have a low fence separating my garden and my neighbours. I would like some bushes which would screen my garden. I'm on a tight budget and can't afford fully grown plants of up to 6ft. I need something more affordable which grows quickly. I'm south facing have good drainage and live in the North East of England. Does anyone have any ideas please?

On Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:11:42 +0000, muddy feet
wrote:


I'm very new to gardening and have a low fence separating my garden and
my neighbours. I would like some bushes which would screen my garden.
I'm on a tight budget and can't afford fully grown plants of up to 6ft.
I need something more affordable which grows quickly. I'm south facing
have good drainage and live in the North East of England. Does anyone
have any ideas please?

The Bird of Paradise Flower (Strelitzia) is tall and may cheep, but it
may not grow well in your garden

On 29 July, 23:04, Sacha wrote:
On 2010-07-29 21:11:42 +0100, muddy feet
said:



I'm very new to gardening and have a low fence separating my garden and
my neighbours. I would like some bushes which would screen my garden.
I'm on a tight budget and can't afford fully grown plants of up to 6ft.
I need something more affordable which grows quickly. I'm south facing
have good drainage and live in the North East of England. Does anyone
have any ideas please?

I'd suggest you do a Google search for companies that specialise in
hedging. *Many have plants sold at very reasonable prices.
--
Sachawww.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon

Above is true. Don't go to garden centres either, you will get ripped
off. Go to a local tree nursery. Most hedging shrubs are sold for
fifty pence or less there.

You need to realise that a plant that starts growing fast carries on growing fast, and may therefore leave you with a very big pruning job, which will get considerably worse if you neglect to perform it. Also you may annoy your neighbour if your plants start overhanging his garden. So Leyland cypress grows fast, but leaves you with a huge problem.

That said, I have a number of hedges in my garden, and the one I find least trouble to maintain is the "laurel" hedge. It had been allowed to get overgrown by the previous owner, and was a hell of a job to reduce to a reasonable size. But now it is of intended size, it is easy to keep it to size by regular clipping with electric hedgeclipping shears. Depending on the weather, needs doing once or twice a year (twice when there is a damp spring). The reason it is easy to prune is that the shoots are fairly soft to cut through, provided you keep at it, and don't miss a year.

I have more attractive sections of hedge, for example Virburnum tinus, and Forsythia, but they need hand pruning because the wood gets hard quickly. If you want a more informal shrubbery, then those are cheap plants to include in one. I wouldn't put laurel in such a shrubbery though, it turns into a large tree.

It is a good idea to mention a hedge in advance to your neighbour, so you can agree in advance how it will be maintained on your neighbour's side, to the extent it grows higher than the fence.

Oooh! - that's a bit mean, unless your user name is a *deliberate* anagram of
the flower name! ;-)

An interesting point.. I'd assumed there was an inverse relationship between growth rate and wood hardness,, ie a tree can either put it's effort into increasing density or to increasing length, it can't do both at the same time. Ash, for example, grows like the clappers, but 6ft shoots are still really soft and can be roughly chopped and put on the compost heap.

"muddy feet" wrote in message
...

I'm very new to gardening and have a low fence separating my garden and
my neighbours. I would like some bushes which would screen my garden.
I'm on a tight budget and can't afford fully grown plants of up to 6ft.
I need something more affordable which grows quickly. I'm south facing
have good drainage and live in the North East of England. Does anyone
have any ideas please?




--
muddy feet


I have a 6foot fence between my neighbours, but they have placed decking,
which is on large sleepers, so when they are on it they overlook our
fencing! My remedy is Buddleia. I have placed it about 3 feet apart, its
very fast growing, and although needs to be pruned, that's usually in March,
when you rant really outside, and now mine are well over six feet tall in
summertime. Pick the common variety, and you will soon have cheap
screening, and lots of butterflies!

In message , kay
writes

echinosum;895891 Wrote:


That said, I have a number of hedges in my garden, and the one I find
least trouble to maintain is the "laurel" hedge. ... But now it is of
intended size, it is easy to keep it to size by regular clipping with
electric hedgeclipping shears. ... The reason it is easy to prune is
that the shoots are fairly soft to cut through, provided you keep at it,
and don't miss a year.

I have more attractive sections of hedge, for example Virburnum tinus,
and Forsythia, but they need hand pruning because the wood gets hard
quickly.

I wouldn't have said that Forysthia produced hard wood.

An interesting point.. I'd assumed there was an inverse relationship
between growth rate and wood hardness,, ie a tree can either put it's
effort into increasing density or to increasing length, it can't do both
at the same time. Ash, for example, grows like the clappers, but 6ft
shoots are still really soft and can be roughly chopped and put on the
compost heap.

There is indeed an inverse correlation, but it's not 100%. For example,
Ribes sanguineum grows faster than Potentilla fruticosa, but it produces
harder wood.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley