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By OCB
#1692697
I know, this isn’t GQT - but I know enough of you here know what you’re talking about.

Over the past few years our neighbourhood privet hedges have suffered from a fungal infection. Added to that, the couple of long hot dry spells we’ve had the past 2 or 3 years, I have patches of dead hedge - worst is the bottom of the property where it’s open season for sticky fingered scrotes to jump over.

I fancy filling those dead spaces with “mixed” hedge. Less pretty to look at, but hopefully hardier - and also act as a barrier to the ever present scrotes who are hitting 2-3 houses per night around the village etc.

I have (non flowering) Hawthorn, which I’ve started softwood cuttings from, and not far away there is flowering Hawthorn where I’ll take a few snips and propagate those also.

I fancy adding Blackthorn, but I have no gardening experience with that.

Anything else I should consider?

Aim is to have a sturdy barrier that animals (esp. humans) won’t enjoy going through, offers a bio diverse habitat for bugs and birds etc, and can be kept by pruning into something that resembles a hedge(row).

I don’t mind taking cuttings, letting those grow for a few years etc.

Ideally I’ll end up with a good mix of Hawthorn, Blackthorn and “other stuff” that’ll be a nice home for local wildlife, bees etc, but manageable to the point I can keep it down enough to be a screen.

*should be noted i am putting in fencing to secure my place where the hedge has died off - but it’s always been my ambition to back fill that with something local and sustainable.
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By Charles Hunt
#1692699
Our first house had pyracantha around the door. Lethal stuff with thorns I loathed even cutting back the stuff. Mix some of that in and I can't imagine anyone trying to force a way through
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By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1692701
Hawthorn and blackthorn are a good start because hawthorn will establish fairly quickly and blackthorn will complement it, but bear in mind blackthorn will sucker, so you don't want it or things like hazel ( also a reasonable hedge plant) near a lawn.

If you already have privet which is evergreen you might want to put some holly and laurel in.

Bear in mind I'm not sure what specific plants would be appropriate in Belgium, but these are fine in UK.
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By rikur_
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1692708
I've got a mix of evergreen and deciduous hawthorn, flowering and non-flowering, about 40yds long.
We laid it in when it was about 8 years old so it's nice and dense. Low maintenance - i.e. annual trim each winter. Full of birds at the moment, and field mice at ground level. Whilst the top half looks nice, it's not that attractive at the lower half, so on our side of the boundary we've planted shrubs in front of it about half its height. Net result is our rear hedge is about 3m in depth.
It's not an effective animal barrier - albeit I can't imagine humans getting through it.
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By OCB
#1692722
Bill McCarthy wrote:Can I suggest some outward facing “Claymores” to fit into open sections of the hedge !!


No way on earth I’m going to leave an expensive and very rust prone hand and a half or double handed and double edged melee weapons lying around the bottom of my garden!

in terms of medieval Scottish battlefield weaponry, I’m a targe and basket hilt kinda guy all the way! more than happy to get stuck in with a schiltrum phalanx, but broken fingers and lost teeth I’m less keen on ...

*edit to say, yes - I presume you mean the shaped charge APMs. I have several cats and a couple of dogs, and 3 kids. Not really an option...
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By OCB
#1692734
rikur_ wrote:I've got a mix of evergreen and deciduous hawthorn, flowering and non-flowering, about 40yds long.
We laid it in when it was about 8 years old so it's nice and dense. Low maintenance - i.e. annual trim each winter. Full of birds at the moment, and field mice at ground level. Whilst the top half looks nice, it's not that attractive at the lower half, so on our side of the boundary we've planted shrubs in front of it about half its height. Net result is our rear hedge is about 3m in depth.
It's not an effective animal barrier - albeit I can't imagine humans getting through it.


Lower few feet is indeed the bit I struggle with. Better to clear some space and plant some young plants? When I try that they are leggy, and I have zero low end density.

Indeed, played with holly (small h). I have one plant in my garden, but it’s very resistant to moving somewhere else.
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By rikur_
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1692745
OCB wrote:
Lower few feet is indeed the bit I struggle with.

Portuguese laurel seems to work well for covering from ground level upwards. Slower growing and neater than the more popular laurel varieties.
By cockney steve
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1692819
to fill in the base......blackberry-brambles? food for yourself /wildlife, fantastic growth-spurts (you can almost see them extending) certainly very prickly and the "runners can be readily interwoven through the stems of the bushes....biggest problem is controlling the rampant growth.

scrote control is usually improved by running a few strands of electric cattle-fence....not dear and they usually don't return for a retry!.
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By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1692825
Our new build backs onto a public recreation ground As well as our 2 .4 metre fence we got the council to install a 2.4 metre picket fence Alongside that on the Rec side they planted a mixture of blackthorn hawthorn and pyracantha to further deter scrotes The hedge is growing well and has reached 4-5 ft in just over 2 years .

Peter