If you want to keep children etc away, what about Berberis? They have spiky thorns. Berberis stenophylla is evergreen, has yellow flowers, and can be trimmed back after it flowers.

Im liking the spikey nature :) How easy is it to keep trimmed and neat? Thanks for the suggestion :)

Also how wide would it get as the grass backs onto the footpath and obviously we cant go onto this and dont want to lose too much of our grass area.

You can keep berberis pruned very tightly. An alternative would be a mixed native hedge of beech, copper beech, blackthorn and hawthorn. You'd have different leaf colours, flowers and on to of the bushes thorns. Again can easily be kept under 6 foot and quite narrow. Just how big is your front lawn space?

Pyrecantha would be my choice, Nasty hard thorns along with evergreen foliage, white flowers in spring and berries in autumn/winter.

Thanks guys.

@ Moon growe, the area is approximately 3m x 10m

This is what it looked like before we moved in about 1.5 years ago:

http://i341.photobucket.com/albums/o366/Lotties-pics/38%20-%20House/IMG_5766.jpg

http://i341.photobucket.com/albums/o366/Lotties-pics/38%20-%20House/IMG_6049.jpg

My thoughts are that any very small pants will be treated to just the problems you have now and be trampled etc. You may well think it worth the extra money to buy much larger plants? But what ever you do will not stop the dogs urinating which may well harm what you plant?

I'm sorry to say I think the depth is to narrow to successfully have a hedge. Do you have to keep to grass? I'd remove all the grass lay down a weed membrane and cover in a nice gravel or pebbles with large containers of plants. The plants being in containers will mean that the dogs can't pee on them and they are less likely to mess on the gravel. You could also try talking to your neighbours if you see them allowing their dogs to perform on your garden and ask them to keep the dog(s) under control.

I would plant a privet hedge there and keep it to about 4ft. From looking at the photos people probably do not realise that the grass is your private garden. By putting in any hedge you are marking your boundaries and I think most of the tresspassing will stop. I have a mixed native hedge down one side of my front garden (20 metres) and I just put down a hedge of Acer Campestre (Field Maple) down the other (10 metres). Both were really cheap to buy.

I wouldn't recommend either Acer campestre or a "mixed native" hedge in your situation as they would be really difficult to keep small enough for your tiny strip of garden.

How about planting something like lavender about 1- 2 feet from the edge of the garden and letting it grow up to about 3 feet high? It will need trimming once a year. Other plants you could consider would be Euonymus fortunei, Rosemary, Santolina or Erica carnea.

You could add slightly higher growing shrubs behind, like Viburnums or Forsythia, keeping them trimmed below window level. Then you wouldn't have to mow the grass and the dogs would have trouble getting in there to foul it.

As this is a new build Estate I would try to form a tenants committee. Surely you all want a nice clean estate to continue.

If you're going to plant a hedge I'd choose a spikey one. I look after several hedges and children seem to have gotten into the habit of throwing themselves at hedges for fun. This can do alot of damage.

My mum's privet has been ruined by lunatic children!

I'd suggest Berberis or pyracantha. Both could be kept narrow (18 inches to 2 feet deep)

Failing that landmines on your border might be effective!

I think I would collect fake Christmas trees from charity shops, as many as possible, and just push them into the ground. They might look odd, but would serve a purpose and you could always decorate them next year!

Cheers guys some great ideas, I especially like the landmines lol.

@ Drc726 bigger to start with will definitely be better, I agree the kids would just trample them otherwise.

@ Moon grow, id love to rip the grass up and lay block paving like the rest of the estate has but that is why we have fallen out with the neighbours, so the grass has to stay unfortunately.

@Kildermorie I agree with you about people not realising its a boundary, hopefully putting something along there will help.

I definitely think spikey is the way to go, I can see the kids just using it as a giant hurdle otherwise. I just wish the parents bothered to come out their houses and keep an eye on the little brats.

If you don't mind a deciduous spikey hedge right on the boundary (which is the best, most effective spot for it), use Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea nana - this only gets 18 inches to 2 feet high, and has rather unpleasant prickles. It won't spread out further than 18 inches either, so won't take up much room, but should deter the kids to some extent, particularly if you plant directly behind it (nearer the house) with larger specimens - perhaps the lavenders suggested earlier, but evergreens which reach 3 - 4 feet only as a sort of secondary hedge would be good. If your soil isn't too alkaline, Skimmia Kew Green might do - this one tolerates sun, but does need acidic soil to thrive.