Hedging

robindch

Morning all -

So, down the end of the back garden, I've a long concrete back wall, around 40 meters in length and around 180cm high. Half of the wall is poured concrete and the other half is brick, previous owner planted a few half-hearted ivies, and the whole thing is an eyesore.

I'd like to hide all of this concrete mess behind something which will stay green all year around, and which, in time can grow up to hide some of the light flooding in at night from the street lights in the next estate.

Taxus baccata or Lawsons cypress hedge seem the obvious choice - nice, thick and deep(ish) evergreen.

Are there any other choices which I should be considering? And are there any nurseries around the place which sell older (taller, thicker) plants? If possible, I'd like to avoid having to wait for five years for the concrete to disappear

looksee

The fact that the ivies have not taken off suggests that there is poor soil at the base of the wall. You should investigate the ground at least a foot to a yard away from the wall and remove all rubbish, lumps of concrete etc, and add some good soil. I am not much of an authority on evergreen/conifers, no doubt someone will give you advice on that. The general feeling is though that it is not necessarily the fastest to buy large trees - they tend to sit there for a while deciding whether to grow, while younger trees are busily getting established and catching up.

Also conifers tend to be less tolerant of being cut back/trained and difficult conditions, once they start to die back they do not recover.

Which way is the wall facing?

kevin67

i have laurel which grew fast, but of course depends on soil, as already mentioned

however this plant grows up to 15 feet and 5 foot wide on each side (so 10 in total)

great hedge if you control it

robindch

looksee wrote: »

The fact that the ivies have not taken off suggests that there is poor soil at the base of the wall.

Well, let me qualify - the ivies are quite well established, but they're growing up at 45 degrees to each side out of the ground - so they look like green triangles, apex down into the ground. And there's lots of raw concrete on view in between the various ivy plants.

Probably a good idea to get the soil dug out away from the wall and replaced as the contractor renovating the house last year found a lot of rubble and metal crap beneath the surface soil when he was laying the back lawn.

looksee wrote: »

The general feeling is though that it is not necessarily the fastest to buy large trees - they tend to sit there for a while deciding whether to grow, while younger trees are busily getting established and catching up.

Good to know.

looksee wrote: »

Which way is the wall facing?

It's running roughly north east to south west, and there's a large eucalyptus, around 60 feet high perhaps five feet wide at the base, about one third of the way down the wall and on my side of it. So, it's a nice feature in the garden and cuts down on the light pollution from the errant sodium lights in teh next estate, but it doesn't have make shite of my lawn, spraying - as it does - endless leathery leaves, plus gum nuts and other smelly, sticky, oily detritus.

macraignil

robindch wrote: »

Morning all -

So, down the end of the back garden, I've a long concrete back wall, around 40 meters in length and around 180cm high. Half of the wall is poured concrete and the other half is brick, previous owner planted a few half-hearted ivies, and the whole thing is an eyesore.

I'd like to hide all of this concrete mess behind something which will stay green all year around, and which, in time can grow up to hide some of the light flooding in at night from the street lights in the next estate.

Taxus baccata or Lawsons cypress hedge seem the obvious choice - nice, thick and deep(ish) evergreen.

Are there any other choices which I should be considering? And are there any nurseries around the place which sell older (taller, thicker) plants? If possible, I'd like to avoid having to wait for five years for the concrete to disappear

Privet, Olearia and Photinia red robin also make good hedge plants and might be worth considering. I found Fermoy Woodlands Nurseries and Hillside Nurseries had a variety of hedging plant sizes available, but not sure what the delivery cost to Dubllin would be. I'd guess some nurseries closer to where you live would also do larger sizes,