Hedge options

[jonny_s_p]

Hi,

I would like to plant a small hedge to enclose an area of my garden that has 6 fruit trees and my (soon to be) chickens. I have a wire mesh fence at the moment, but it looks a bit nasty. My plan is to plant a smallish hedge 3 or 4 foot high and 1 foot deep nest to the mesh to hide it.

Now to my question. I have seen Sloe (blackthorn?) plants for hedges but my experience of sloe bushes in the wild is that they are big. Can you keep a sloe hedge like a privet hedge? My reason for wanting sloes is that I like sloe gin

Alternatively are there any other plants I could plant that could give edible fruits or berries?

Thanks in advance.

John

[Nicos]

Don't know much about them, but I found you a supplier-

www.victoriana.ws/Product.asp?PID=191&P=Sloe

I wonder if you have to consider if the chickens will eat the fruit?( do they eat fruit???)
There are loads of chicken folk on the Vine who I'm sure will be able to help you out.
And welcome to the Vine- we look forward to you letting us know what you decide to do...and any advice from you will go down a treat!!

[roitelet]

Hi Jonny,

Welcome to the vine. Lots of good advice here and if one Grape doesn't know the answer another surely will.

As to Blackthorn, DON'T GROW IT As you say it grows big but did you know that it sends out runners and you could soon end up with a Blackthorn thicket

You could try Gooseberries, I heard somewhere that they can be treated as a hedge but I think that the chickens could well be partial to the fruit.

Best of luck.

[jonny_s_p]

Hi Nicos,

Good advice about checking chicken and sloe compatiblity; I will check up on it.

Thanks for the welcome. This is my second garden. My first was a mature well planted garden that I kept going. I've now moved to a house with a largish plot (100m *10m back garden, 20m * 10m front garden and a 8m * 15 vegetable garden) which is all bare grass and concrete. Its a daunting challenge but exciting at the same time.

John

[Birdie Wife]

chickens and sloes should be no problem, sloes are so bitter that they hang on the bushes for an age with no wild bird touching them. It would take several years before your sloe bushes started producing fruit anyway. Gooseberries may be a little tastier, I don't have experience of chickens going for them but other people may know different. Anyway, birds are always doing things they aren't 'supposed' to!

What about something ornamental like pyracantha? You can get varieties that are easy to train in the way you want. And they're spiky too!

[Earthbabe]

Good luck with the challenge

Sounds very exciting John.

Have you considered hawthorn, myrtle (a bit slow growing possibly), dog rose (for hips)?

Check out wiggly wigglers, they do a good selection of "native" hedging.

http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/

[nick the grief]

Hi John,
There are loads of folks that advertise in the gardening press that sell hedging. Blackthorn will grow large but only if you let it. You could always teach your self hedge laying to keep it in check.

Personally I wouldn't limit myself to a single species but go for a mixed hedge and you may not get the fruit for yourself but it will be more wildlife friendly. Also you could always plant a "standard" every so often in hte hedge e.g. Plum, Apple etc.

[smallblueplanet]

Get yourself a native hedging mix - think of all the wildlife it can be home to (as NTG says). I would be tempted to find a local garden centre selling hedging whips as they will be 'acclimatised' to your area.

[Nicos]

SBP...for goodness sake don't introduce LJ to hedging whips!!!!

[smallblueplanet]

LOL!.....eight to the bar! purleaze Nicos.

[burnie]

Hi,

I would like to plant a small hedge to enclose an area of my garden that has 6 fruit trees and my (soon to be) chickens. I have a wire mesh fence at the moment, but it looks a bit nasty. My plan is to plant a smallish hedge 3 or 4 foot high and 1 foot deep nest to the mesh to hide it.

Now to my question. I have seen Sloe (blackthorn?) plants for hedges but my experience of sloe bushes in the wild is that they are big. Can you keep a sloe hedge like a privet hedge? My reason for wanting sloes is that I like sloe gin

Alternatively are there any other plants I could plant that could give edible fruits or berries?

Thanks in advance.

John

Looks like you and I have a similar problem we'll have to pool our resources.

[rustylady]

Forget sloes (blackthorn) they're meant to be trees and will do their very best to grow into them, they do not respond to trimming like privet either. As I said when I replied to Burnie's thread, you need to decide what you need from your "fedge". Gooseberries can be trained and will provide a thorny barrier, but they do not keep their leaves through winter.

[Peter]

Honeysuckle will romp all over a wire fence, keep it trimmed and the whole thing will look like a little sweetsmelling hedge.

[snohare]

You could try Sea Buckthorn, very good for the wildlife, getting to be a rather rare native, but does well under most circumstances and only needs pruning (as far as I know ! ) to keep it hedge sized. The bright orange berries are full of vitamins and keep it looking beautiful all winter, plus they can be used in drinks.
Or so Ray Mears says !
Seriously though, if you are planting a hedge to hide the mesh, you need to ask yourself, what do you want to do when the mesh falls apart - replace it, in which case you need to trim the hedge accordingly meantime, or just leave the grown hedge as a replacement, in which case you need to think very carefully about spacing and plant types if you are keeping out foxes, keeping in chooks etc. A short 5 minute course in hedge laying might really help you here.

[jonny_s_p]

What a response, thanks for all your advice. I will let you know the results.

Jonny