If you’re planting a hedge, the chances are that you want it to grow quickly, creating privacy, a boundary or a windbreak, or dividing your garden into ‘rooms’. A hedge is an excellent alternative to a fence, providing interest all year round and shelter and food for wildlife. A hedge also makes a better windbreak than a fence, as wind is able to travel through it rather than smack into it, which can cause damage.
The cheapest way to plant a hedge is to plant bare-root plants in the dormant season, between November and February. Many hedging plants can be grown in this way, including beech, hornbeam and yew. Evergreen hedges, such as privet, are best planted in early autumn.
Choose plants that will establish and grow fast, knitting together quickly. Here are some suggestions for fast-growing hedging plants, all of which should put on a minimum of 30cm growth a year.
HazelHazel makes an excellent hedge, also as part of a mixed native hedge with plants like blackthorn and hawthorn. It bears beautiful green-yellow catkins on bare wood in spring, followed by lush green leaves. In autumn, hazel nts (or cobnuts) are produced. These are edible but the squirrels may get to them first. Hazel plants grow between 40cm and 60cm per year.
Cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) is a dense evergreen with large glossy green leaves. It should put on at least 30cm in a year. In summer it bears fruits that resemble cherries, turning from red to black as they mature. Grow in sun or shade.
Fuchsia magellanica can be grown as an attractive and unusual
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