Not exactly flowers ........

[veggiechicken]

Jerusalem artichoke?

May blow Bins' plants over

[tamsin]

Trelis on posts and then a nice climber or several. You can always dig out a nice big hole and fill with nicer soil. Trouble with conifers are they are quite wide too when they get taller so you lose width. Seems unlikely they'd be the only thing that grows... is the rest of her garden not got plants?

If she's set them thuja is a similar but better option, slightly slower growing and you can cut back more and they regrow.

[Two_Sheds]

but what can someone plant as a 6ft screen instead of the Leylandii that she has been told is the only thing that will grow? .........

cr@p, it's not the only thing, it's just the laziest option, and completely anti-social. Will she commit to keeping it pruned, possibly several times a year?

Also, they're being attacked by pests, so she's going to fairly quickly have a half-dead hedge, half brown and half green, then have to dig it all out and start again

She already has a wall about 5' high but wants something to give privacy from the neighbours ...Am guessing she wants something thats fairly quick growing

Anything quick growing is going to keep on doing that: it doesn't know you want it to stop at 5 feet

The soil can be enriched, or plants can be put in containers if the soil is really terrible (though I doubt it is: my neighbour told me my front garden was poor soil & nothing would grow)

Trelis on posts and then a nice climber or several.

She wants a range of plants to give her variety and a longer season of interest ~ nothing is perfect all year round.

What I have on my own 6ft fences:

West Facing
- jasmine
- climbing rose (Iceberg)
- clem.montana
- evergreen clem.
- honeysuckle
- quince (pruned flattish to the fence)
- black bamboo* (clump forming, not invasive)

North Facing (shady)
- pyracantha (pruned almost flat to the fence)
- passiflora

North East Facing (really shady)
- twisted willow in a large tub


That's the backbone, then I have colourful deciduous clems for summer colour

In winter it's fairly drab of course (apart from pyracantha which has red berries) but then I'm not in the garden much in the winter so it doesn't matter


* black bamboo: pretty slow growing compared to some, but mine has gone from eBay seedling to 3' x 3' clump in 3 years. It does throw out runners but these are easily dug out to keep the clump under control

[Peas'n'Kews]

Needs regular cutting, but Lonicera Nitida, or shrubby honeysuckle makes a nice hedge....

Was going down the Jerusalem artichoke root (pun!) but that's been suggested already.

Also, how about Quince? flowers almost all year and you can make Quince cheese with the fruit....

[binley100]

Also, how about Quince? flowers almost all year and you can make Quince cheese with the fruit....

LOL love her to bits but the limit of her cooking skills is rice krispie cakes ........I think she's having a hormonal moment (is preggie) and she'll regret it after. Just been looking at her wall which has trellis along the top and stuff growing on it already . Think she's lost the plot and will tell her There's some good suggestions there for me to use as ammo .......