Someone we know if having to install a hedge due to neighbouring
developments some 50 metres long and they want it to be eventually six
feet tall.
Getting on in years they need it to be essentially minimum maintenance.
They have been told Laurel doesn't look good if cut down with hedge
cutters as a lot of leaves don't go brown after being cut in half.
They have also be told leylandi type conifers don't grow around dead
patches so that could be a problem?
Grateful for any suggestions please.

In article ,
john west wrote:
Someone we know if having to install a hedge due to neighbouring
developments some 50 metres long and they want it to be eventually six
feet tall.
Getting on in years they need it to be essentially minimum maintenance.
They have been told Laurel doesn't look good if cut down with hedge
cutters as a lot of leaves don't go brown after being cut in half.
They have also be told leylandi type conifers don't grow around dead
patches so that could be a problem?

Yew. The problem is that fast-growing hedges need a lot of maintenance;
so it's a choice between speed of growth and ease of maintenance.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 22/07/2020 12:31, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
john west wrote:
Someone we know if having to install a hedge due to neighbouring
developments some 50 metres long and they want it to be eventually six
feet tall.
Getting on in years they need it to be essentially minimum maintenance.
They have been told Laurel doesn't look good if cut down with hedge
cutters as a lot of leaves don't go brown after being cut in half.
They have also be told leylandi type conifers don't grow around dead
patches so that could be a problem?

Yew. The problem is that fast-growing hedges need a lot of maintenance;
so it's a choice between speed of growth and ease of maintenance.

Yew grows a lot faster than is generally thought (but take the "40 cm a
year" mentioned on some websites with a pinch of salt!). However, for a
hedge 50 metres long they will need a *lot* of money. For 70 - 100 cm
plants (which will take at least four years for the shorter plants to
reach six feet, more likely six years) they will need three per metre,
so that's 150 required. For those they will pay around £15 for each
plant. Then they will have to pay someone to plant them. And don't
forget that for the first year they will need regular and frequent
watering, especially if they are in the south or east of England.

Another possibility is Thuja plicata (Western Red Cedar) which is
somewhat cheaper and faster growing.

--

Jeff

On 22/07/2020 12:31, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
john west wrote:
Someone we know if having to install a hedge due to neighbouring
developments some 50 metres long and they want it to be eventually six
feet tall.
Getting on in years they need it to be essentially minimum maintenance.
They have been told Laurel doesn't look good if cut down with hedge
cutters as a lot of leaves don't go brown after being cut in half.
They have also be told leylandi type conifers don't grow around dead
patches so that could be a problem?

Yew. The problem is that fast-growing hedges need a lot of maintenance;
so it's a choice between speed of growth and ease of maintenance.

Even slow growing hedges take a fair amount of maintenance when you have
a long length of them. Mine ~30m is in blocks of the same species taken
from beech, holly, cotoneaster, lonicera, hawthorn, and privet.

Of those only the golden form of lonicera and the holly are what I would
describe as slow growing. Yew would be slow growing but expensive and
unsuitable if there is livestock or children in the neighbouring field.

There are very few (no?) hedging plants that grow quickly to 6' high and
then stop. You have to cut them twice a year for them to look good.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 22/07/2020 12:02, john west wrote:
Someone we know if having to install a hedge due to neighbouring
developments some 50 metres long and they want it to be eventually six
feet tall.
Getting on in years they need it to be essentially minimum maintenance.
They have been told Laurel doesn't look good if cut down with hedge
cutters as a lot of leaves don't go brown after being cut in half.
They have also be told leylandi type conifers don't grow around dead
patches so that could be a problem?
Grateful for any suggestions please.

Yew is really good, once a year cut handles it, its dense and its
evergreen, but the downside of any low maintenance hedge is that it will
be slow growing...I've tried box, holly, yew...yew remains my favourite
evergreen and grows faster than the others. Bay also grows quite fast
but its very big leaves.

I hate privet.

Deciduous wise? - well beech or hornbeam?. Hornbeam stands wet soggy
clay better, beech looks nicer




--
New Socialism consists essentially in being seen to have your heart in
the right place whilst your head is in the clouds and your hand is in
someone else's pocket.

On Wed, 22 Jul 2020 14:29:29 The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 22/07/2020 12:02, john west wrote:
Someone we know if having to install a hedge due to neighbouring
developments some 50 metres long and they want it to be eventually six
feet tall.
Getting on in years they need it to be essentially minimum maintenance.
They have been told Laurel doesn't look good if cut down with hedge
cutters as a lot of leaves don't go brown after being cut in half.
They have also be told leylandi type conifers don't grow around dead
patches so that could be a problem?
Grateful for any suggestions please.

Yew is really good, once a year cut handles it, its dense and its
evergreen, but the downside of any low maintenance hedge is that it
will be slow growing...I've tried box, holly, yew...yew remains my
favourite evergreen and grows faster than the others. Bay also grows
quite fast but its very big leaves.

I hate privet.

Deciduous wise? - well beech or hornbeam?. Hornbeam stands wet soggy
clay better, beech looks nicer

I have a long hornbeam hedge. It looks nice and is quite fast growing
and dense.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

In article ,
David Rance wrote:

On Wed, 22 Jul 2020 14:29:29 The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 22/07/2020 12:02, john west wrote:
Someone we know if having to install a hedge due to neighbouring
developments some 50 metres long and they want it to be eventually six
feet tall.
Getting on in years they need it to be essentially minimum maintenance.
They have been told Laurel doesn't look good if cut down with hedge
cutters as a lot of leaves don't go brown after being cut in half.
They have also be told leylandi type conifers don't grow around dead
patches so that could be a problem?
Grateful for any suggestions please.

Yew is really good, once a year cut handles it, its dense and its
evergreen, but the downside of any low maintenance hedge is that it
will be slow growing...I've tried box, holly, yew...yew remains my
favourite evergreen and grows faster than the others. Bay also grows
quite fast but its very big leaves.

I hate privet.

Deciduous wise? - well beech or hornbeam?. Hornbeam stands wet soggy
clay better, beech looks nicer

I have a long hornbeam hedge. It looks nice and is quite fast growing
and dense.

My 2p: Beech (I don't know about hornbeam). Looks good, grows fast
enough, once over 2 feet or so, and *stays as a hedge during winter*,
only shedding its now-brown leaves just before leafing out next Spring.
Takes *a lot* of punishment, growing back quick and green. It only needs
cutting once a year (for me: June/July).

Someone-you-know "is getting on"? What does that mean? If you are 40,
you probably think "getting on" is 60 --- which is virtually Spring
Chicken compared to 70, let me tell you :-( 6 foot is plenty high
enough for a hedge -- anything over spells very, very hard work. (Unless
they pay someone else to keep it trimmed.)

In this case I would buy as big beech saplings as I could afford and
plant them in a very well prepared trench, to give maximum comfort for
the roots. It will take a couple of years (or more) for it to look like
a hedge, unless the someone-you-know is well-off and can afford potted
saplings which are a reasonable height when planted. You need to cut
the tops off each year to encourage side-growth. Later, you need to be
very severe with the tops, because they will have become thick and
gnarled: you want young, thin growth.

FWIW my front hedge is mixed: beech, hazel, and blackthorn; with some
honeysuckle. They all look good, the hazel gets a few nits (for
delight), the blackthorn produces blossom in early Spring, and then
sloes in Autumn. However Blackthorn is not also called QuickThorn for
nothing: it sends suckers out wherever it can: we regularly have shoots
appearing in the flower beds 3 metres beyond the hedge.

Finally: NOT holly! It looks wonderful to anyone who does not have to
keep it under control. It's an absolute ******* to cut. (Good for
keeping people out, mind).

Oh: and NOT laurel: give it an inch and it will take a mile: turn your
back on it one year, and it will be 4 metres tall before you know.


Sorry: that was hardly 2p, was it?

Cheers
John

I said:

FWIW my front hedge is mixed: beech, hazel, and blackthorn; with some
honeysuckle. They all look good, the hazel gets a few nits (for
delight), the blackthorn produces blossom ....

Just to be clear, I meant nuts, which are nice to see, not nits, which
are not. I was mildly drunk at the time I typed that.

J.

In article ,
Another John wrote:
I said:

FWIW my front hedge is mixed: beech, hazel, and blackthorn; with some
honeysuckle. They all look good, the hazel gets a few nits (for
delight), the blackthorn produces blossom ....

Just to be clear, I meant nuts, which are nice to see, not nits, which
are not. I was mildly drunk at the time I typed that.

On sloe gin from your hedge? :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 22 Jul 2020 12:02, john west wrote:
Someone we know if having to install a hedge due to neighbouring
developments some 50 metres long and they want it to be eventually six
feet tall.
Getting on in years they need it to be essentially minimum maintenance.
They have been told Laurel doesn't look good if cut down with hedge
cutters as a lot of leaves don't go brown after being cut in half.
They have also be told leylandi type conifers don't grow around dead
patches so that could be a problem?
Grateful for any suggestions please.


Why not a 6ft or two metre high fence? Minimum maintenance if
installed with concrete posts and soil boards, takes up
very little room width wise.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden

On 22/07/2020 12:02, john west wrote:
Someone we know if having to install a hedge due to neighbouring
developments some 50 metres long and they want it to be eventually six
feet tall.
Getting on in years they need it to be essentially minimum maintenance.
They have been told Laurel doesn't look good if cut down with hedge
cutters as a lot of leaves don't go brown after being cut in half.
They have also be told leylandi type conifers don't grow around dead
patches so that could be a problem?
Grateful for any suggestions please.


We have a long Laurel hedge which is on top of a retaining wall above a
pavement, it is very hard to maintain and for years I did it by hand
with secateurs having heeded the warnings of brown leave if a hedge
trimmer was used, my son now does it for me with his power extended
hedge trimmer and it is absolutely fine and looks good very soon after
cutting which happens once a year in August. were I one of his customers
he says he would charge around £150 for cutting and removal of trimmings

However with any hedge one should never forget the other side! is there
access?

--
Charlie Pridham
Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk

Bob Hobden wrote:

Why not a 6ft or two metre high fence? Minimum maintenance if
installed with concrete posts and soil boards, takes up
very little room width wise.

Indeed! Then you can soften it with a variety of perennials,
climbers and shrubs which can be slow-growing and needing little
attention.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
@ChrisJDixon1

Plant amazing Acers.