This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Reply Re: Privacy Hedge, LONG - PART I

Rob, 

A week or so ago, I told you I'd work up a list of plants for you for your
'privacy hedge'.  Well, I really got into it and after I got done, I
realized I'd gotten carried away a bit here and this is really a long
response that probably is much more than you ever wanted to know.  But,
since I've gone and done it, I figured I'd go ahead and post it to the List
because someone else might find it useful, too.  There ought to be
*something* here that you'd want to include in your 'privacy hedge' for the
wildlife.  

Both the 'Blue Girl' and 'Blue Boy' Hollies would work well.  I bet you can
find small ones mailorder for less than the landscape ones at the local
nursery.  Anyway, a lot of the plants I've found can be purchased small and
grow pretty quickly.  I decided the best thing to do is break this tome up
into Parts I-V so it doesn't choke some mailbox somewhere :-)  Sorry to be
so long-winded :-)  Anyway, here is Part I.

Since you've got a pretty deep area, you're going to have more of a
'border' than a 'hedge'.  At any rate, after doing a bit of research, I
find that there are seven types of plants you should have to attract birds
and provide food and shelter for them.  Any of the plants I've collected
here would grow well in your area, in full sun and many of them in part
shade. 

 I think you should have a mix, not just one type of plant.  That way, you
can have year around interest as well as attract more different species of
birds and other critters.  If you group various kinds of evergreens along
the length of your area (say groups of 3 evergreens of about the same size
but maybe different species -- and not in a straight line) and intersperse
them with deciduous woody shrubs, grasses and perennials of varying heights
and blooming periods -- using some shorter shrubs and perennials as ground
covers, you can have a fairly maintenance-free garden after everything is
established.  

With a depth of 30 or 40 feet, you will need to make some paths into the
area if for no other reason than getting in there to do maintenance without
stomping on something.  Since I've found quite a few plants, I would
suggest you see if you can find photos of them -- in books or on the web --
and do a bit of reading up to see which ones appeal to you most and make
your selections.  You will have room for quite a number of plants, I should
think, even considering that most of the woody plants will get fairly
large.  

You might want to draw a rough plan on paper and allot a circle the
diameter that the plant you are considering will get and place the circles
on your plan until you have groupings that satisfy you.  You can have the
circles touch each other if you are using the ultimate diameter.  The
plants you buy will look very lonesome the first few years.  You can
interplant with perennials or annuals to fill in until the woodies reach
decent size.  With shrubs, this doesn't generally take too long.  Within 5
years, most of them will have gotten pretty good sized.  Your other
alternative is to plant things closer than they should be with the idea
that some of them will have to be removed in 5 or 10 years when the ones
you really want to keep have started needing the space.  

If you want plants to grow together, forming a dense, impenetrable "hedge",
you can plant on 5' or 6' centers.  But, keep in mind that if you do this
with evergreen plants, they will generally tend to die out in the centers
when they get no light to their inner branches. 

Not knowing what your land looks like, I'd suggest locating evergreens
where they will block any view you need to block from vantage points like
house windows, patios or decks and then filling in with deciduous plants
for variety.  Put your taller growing plants toward the rear, but bring
some forward to create 'bays' for other things.  That would, IMO, be more
interesting than just lining things up like soldiers:-)  You may also want
to make the borders of this area irregular -- not a square or a rectangle. 
This would give you a more naturalistic appearance because Mother Nature
never does squares or rectangles.

(continued in Part II)
----------
> From: RobsGardn@aol.com
> Date: Monday, August 11, 1997 8:03 AM
> 
> I would like the area to be somewhere in the area of 40'x40' to 30'x50'.
I
> plan on using the hedge as a year 'round divider, with perennials such as
> butterfly bush and cone flower to highlight the area as well as attract
birds
> and butterflies. If the you can suggest a mixed hedge, I would be very
> interested in it. As I said, I don't want to look too stiff, just have an
> area in my back yard that that is "protected" all year.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE WOODYPLANTS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index