What hedge can I use?

How about using native species for the hedge? You can get hedging plants quite cheaply, like Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Hazel, Field Maple etc. These would grow reasonably fast and would attract wildlife to your garden - some are prickly, so would deter intruders. They all have attractive flowers or leaves and berries, too.

I agree (as usual) with Spritz.

May I tell you a story about a neighbour of mine who needed to put up a new hedge for privacy. Unfortunately it gave privacy to the burglars who broke in. Nobody could see them because of the hedge. I'm certainly not trying to be alarmist but do hold that sort of thing in mind and possibly go along with Spritz' suggestion of one that will deter intruders. Hawthorn or Blackthorn is brilliant if you don't want people scaling it. (What a weird world we live in).

John.

I agree with Spritz and John,
A natural mixed hedge can be left to grow uneven.
Dawnsaunt has a similar problem and we talked about Beech.
To get a good formal hedge which is instant, large 5ft. Laurel would be my choice.

Beech is OK as long as you are not on a clay soil. If you are, hornbeam would be better. Both of these keep their old brown leaves through the winter

oe perhaps grow what you want but lelet rambling roses grow over it that is egsactly what id.mind i have 4 sets of teeth if people want to get in that much and one set is mine lol.give you a nice bit of colour asswell.anyway just another idea.

you have to care about security im afraid so is life but id rather do it naturaly and legaly i mite add

In 'Wild about your Garden' last night (BBC1) they planted a natural mixed hedge bought ready grown by the metre about 5ft tall. As the programme was in Milton Keynes could have been from Buckingham Nurseries? One that sells ready grown is http://www.pracbrown.co.uk (I've never used them myself just seen them on the web)

Agree with N Potter about the wild rose kind of hedge, they're very VERY prickly. And they smell lovely when flowering.
Personally I find laurel very boring, and you see it absolutely everywhere now. Also I don't think it's a big hit with native wildlife? (sorry anyone on here who loves laurel, lol)
Anything that grows that quickly to 5' is maybe a fast-grower and need more regular pruning - ? Or go for something like what Wagger suggests, already larger plants, which might work out quite expensive, depends how much you can spend on it.
What about holly? Some different varieties maybe for more interest, that's what my neighbour's gone for, she had the same worry.
Or pyracanthus? don't know if I spelt that one properly.

If you've got a Wildlife trust in your area some of them sell plants that they've grown and that might be a good place to buy very cheap barerooted native hedging plants right now - I got hawthorn and dog rose from them recently for next to nothing.

i think our question has bean answerd one way or te other

Hawthorn amd Blackthorn is a good idea ,perhaps even have a go at hedgelaying , that should keep any intruders out

I've just received a price for a holly hedge. £2.50 per 30cm plant, so quite expensive also I've been reliably informed that if rabbits are a problem it will need netting - apparently a rabbit will nip a holly plant off before it would go for a carrot, lol.

This is the perfect time of year for planting a bare root hedge. I planted hornbeam in early 2008, so far there is little growth but I expect it to take off next year. I chose hornbeam because it's native, has attractive foliage and produces fruits which birds will enjoy, and the coppery leaves are mostly retained through winter.

The bare root plants are also very reasonably priced, I think I got 25 x 2ft plants for about £1 each including postage.

cool

Is that true Dawn , i,m interested because we have several fully grown mature Holly trees , the berries drop onto the garden which means we have small holly tree plants growing in all sorts of places usually in the middle of shrubs were you cant dig them out , we do have a lot of rabbits up the drive which we go to great pains to keep out because of eating the veg. and plants , perhaps we should be encouraging them to come in to eat the Holly seedlings LOL

Hi Amy. Yes, our local (very knowledgeable, RHS linked) Horticulturist visited recently and he suggested a holly hedge for one part of our garden but said if we do purchase the 10 inch high plants at £2.50 each (ouch) they would need netting if there are rabbits about because they will eat a holly before a carrot, which I thought was quite funny. He said if we went for holly it would need to be netted.x

Thank you Dawn , that is interesting .! it,s a pity they don,t eat all the prickly leaves that fall on top of the other plants and are difficult to remove .. the rabbits could be like little hoovers removing them for me LOL

its not an ideal world lol