[blagadan]

Hi all,

I have a good sized garden on a 1 acre sloped site. I put in a big raised border about 3 years ago. It is crescent shaped with a retaining wall and some hard landscaping I'm working on at the moment. I planted over 150 silver birch in that border 3 years ago but tbh, it looked pretty boring. I love silver birch but all the same type of tree was really bland.

This year (last weekend), I thinned out about 25% of the birch and planted a variety of trees mingling through the silver birch..... copper beech, wild cherry, bird cherry, ash, beech, birch etc. Mostly 2-3ft trees, all supplied by coillte nurseries.

Anyway... thats the background to my project. My question is relating to a second border I'm planning on putting in behind the raised border. I want to plant another crescent shaped island of desciduous trees behind the main border. Primary reason to give a dark green background to enhance the trunks of the silver birch in the central section of the border. Secondary reason to provide shelter and privacy in the winter. 3rd reason is to block off an unsightly building in a neighbouring property.

I'm looking for suggestions of evergreen trees that dont have vicious sharp or sticky needles. Soft growth that kids can play around without fear of getting stabbed by sharp piney needles?




thanks,

blag

[James Kilkelly, was GPI.]

[blagadan]

Hi GPI, I dont mind either way. What I am looking for is dark green colour with soft fluffy foliage..... I have a type in mind but I dont know the names...I've been searchin the web for pictures of what I'm looking for but havent found yet...

[blagadan]

Heres a snap of the border. I took the pic from the upstairs window of my house, so on the bottom left of the pic you're looking down on the roof of the conservatory...

I'm going to build a slate canopy on top of the two vertical piers. The two trenches behind the piers are for footings. I'm going to build a dry stone wall either side of the path that leads from the low gravel area to the top lawn area. The circular walled area will have a wooden deck and a small water feature to the right. The low kerb on the right is going and I'll put a 2ft wall in its place.

[James Kilkelly, was GPI.]

Nice topical pic there blagadan.

Have a look at creating something like this.....

Outer band of planting (closest to road) to consist of Thuja plicata "Dura" (Western red ceder), middle band to consist of Prunus laurocerasus 'Rotundifolia' (laurel), and for the band closest to the house you could use Cotoneaster lacteus for its red berries.
All are evergreen, if that is what you want.

See what you think by checking out all of these plants in this post..... Hedging plants in Ireland (size, spacing, flowers and fruit)

[Sb]

Scots pine possibly. Gpi has a post about them in the native tree section. They have needles but they a long and quite soft.

[BlackBird]

You could include some Thuja plicata AKA Western red cedar. It is soft enough, evergreen and managable if you select a moderate growth variety.

[blagadan]

Thanks for the suggestions (and link) guys. Some good ideas.