[Techeng]

The front of my house is south facing. I have a small brick wall (2 foot high) running around the front perimeter with a small fence between my house and next door.

I want put a hedge in the front running along the wall and also along the neighgouring fence. Ideally the hedge will be no higher than 3-4 foot when mature. Note that the front lawn is covered in moss and gets quite wet during the winter

I visited the local garden center and quite liked the look of Laurel or Griselinia, I would love some advise

1. What hedge plant is suitable for this aspect - needs to be easily tended and low maintainence.
2. When should I sow
3. Currenly just a lawn, how do I prepare for a hedge

Any advise would be appreciated

[Michael196]

Griselinia will give you colour and flowers , whereas the laurel will remain green all year round ( gets a bit boring to look at !! ) .

Laurel can grom quite lareg and uncoltrolled.

griselinia , you need to check teh hight , but would grom naturally to about 6-8 feet i would guess.

both are easily tended and low maintenance, both requiring strimming once a year.

Sow between january and and of march, ( missed the bus for this year perhaps).


to prepare for a hedge,:
start digging out a trench about 1 foot wide by 1 foot deep and back fill with the originla soil mixed with fresh compost. You can then just leave this until the plants are available bare rooted in the autumn from your nursery or garden center suppler. all the hard work will be done, then just plant them in whe the time comes in autumn.

you could go ahead now if you can get potted griselenia, however the cost will be higher , ( x 3 or 5 ), the established from pots needs more care and attention over the summer. If ( bare rooted) are potted in the autumn/ winter, the plants have a chance to start growing roots before the summer arrives, so can survive better than pot planted in late spring.

Bare rooted means that you get the plants with no soil aroun their base ( i.e.e not in pots ), but they must be planted within say 24 hours of being taken from the groundby the nursery / garden center.

Moss on the lawn is caused by compact soil, por draiange of lack of sunlight. Consider draining the lawn by digging drainage channels.

the hedge will not survive if the roots are waterlogged for weeks at a time in the winter so make sure that there is godd draiiningae around the hedging ( no water logging).

[breezyacre]

Hi. The front of your house is south facing.? I am amazed that with all the sun on a south facing lawn that the lawn gets wet and moss grows so virulently. A trench however around the lawn for the hedge will help this particularly if you mix in plenty of stone with what you backfill. The roots of the hedge should also take some of the extra moisture off the lawn. The easiest solution to the moss is a machine called a scarifier which you can hire from your local hire centre. This pulls the moss off the lawn. You must then gather the moss and get rid of it. This is not a long term solution but if you do it every year in may your lawn will look much better.
Beech hedge is an indigenous hedge that , in my opinion, looks well in both the growing season and the dormant season. It takes trimming twice a year to keep a shape on it but , in my opinion, it is worth the effort.

[Michael196]

iron sulphate on the lawn will also kill off the moss and then the scarifier will tkae it out of the ground once it is dead

[James Kilkelly]