Hedge Alternative

tk123

Our LOVELY neighbour has half killed our hedge!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: (which is on our side of the boundry but we won't get in to that). Basically there's a railing between the 2 houses with the hedge on our side but it turns out that yer man was cutting down the back of the railing(which was supporting the hedge) so the poor hedge is gone all thin and bare. Now the houses are nearly 100 years old and apparently it'll take YEARS for it to grow back and you can only buy tiny saplings - can anybody suggest an alternative plant/bush?! Basically we want it to be abt 4ft high and at least 1ft thick but we want it that way FAST. We don't want a wall or wood there cos then the kids next door will be climbing on it etc and we don't really like them so we want our privacy from them so we want a plant/bush of some kind there. :rolleyes:

narommy

What sort of hedge have/had you got?
Laurel's grow fairly fast. You can get them fairly big too. Sowing a double hedge will also speed things up and thicken up fast. I prefer privet tho.

Shaking some( a little) 10:10:20 fertiliser around the base (about 6 inches from stem) of the shrubs every 6 weeks will speed things up too. Seen my dad do it lately and they've rocketed. Now is a good time to sow but you can't expect good growth until nest spring summer.


Below is what i mean by a double hedge. aboul 1ft between rows and 1.5ft between the shrubs

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Some bushes prefer shelter so you might need a windscreen.

I personally with no good reason think that if you are looking for a 4ft hedge you would want to cut the tops off when it gets to 3 ft to bring it back down to 2ft. It thickens it up.(and you can also stick the shoots into potting compost and see if they grow) Otherwise it is going to end up bare at the bottom. It's hard to rush a good hedge.

Visit a garden centre (outside dublin) and they'll give you some advice of atleast you can see which varieties appeal to you. Mighht get a discount if you need a lot.

In your case since you are so fond of your neighbours kids you could consider Whitethorn. :cool: a very effective barrier as the name would suggest but the foliage dies off in the winter

tk123

Thanks for the advise narommy!! We have privet there at the moment but yer man has ruined it. It's really annoying cos my mam has been taking care of it for the last 30+ years and yer man moves in spends the last few years wrecking it. Whats even more annoying is that fact that this guy would have sued us if we did that to his property - he's one of these complainers who "knows his rights"...He complained one time when somebody painted their house cos it didn't "fit in with the rest of the road" :rolleyes: which is why I want to paint the house a crazy colour to piss him off mmmwahahahahhaaa