EP302- Best Hedging Options For An Irish Garden. Hedge Smarts For Every Garden.

Planning a hedge can feel like a maze: endless species, mixed advice, and pressure to get it right for the long haul. We cut through the noise with a clear framework that starts with purpose, respects your site, and ends with a shortlist you can trust. Whether you want privacy that feels soft, a living windbreak, neat garden rooms, or a wildlife corridor buzzing with life, you’ll find practical picks and honest trade-offs.

We dive into deciduous stalwarts like beech and hornbeam, explaining why beech remains a favourite for structure and low maintenance, and when hornbeam wins on wetter ground. For biodiversity, we show how to build a native mix—hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, viburnum opulus, and rugosa rose—that feeds pollinators and birds through the seasons. We also explain why tight clipping hides flowers and berries, and how to let sections grow out for real ecological value without losing order.

If evergreen is your brief, we unpack cotoneaster cornubia’s glossy leaves and autumn berries, griselinia’s coastal toughness, slow but classy holly, and the underrated reliability of privet and escallonia where frost is light. We give straight talk on photinia’s red flush versus real-world maintenance, and chat about our bad memeroies of leylandii and look at better conifer choices like Thuja ‘Emerald’. We also share when laurel is manageable and when it becomes a long-term problem for landscapes. For those who love clean lines, yew offers timeless elegance, while box still frames spaces beautifully, with lonicera as a tougher alternative where knocks happen.

You’ll leave with a simple decision path: define the job, assess wind, frost, wet, choose evergreen or deciduous with intent, and pick spacing that fills without waste. We wrap with smart screening tactics that may only need a handful of well-placed plants to block sightlines and keep your view. If this guide helped you plan with confidence, follow the show, share with a gardening friend, and leave a quick review to help others find us.

Chapters

• 0:00 Why Hedges Matter Now
• 2:40 Planning For Bare-Root Season
• 5:45 How To Choose The Right Hedge
• 9:25 Site Limits: Wind, Frost, Wet
• 12:40 Evergreen Or Deciduous
• 14:30 Beech And Hornbeam Deep Dive
• 19:20 Native Mixes For Biodiversity
• 23:05 Evergreen Options With Berries
• 26:10 Smart Privacy And Screening Tactics
• 28:25 Coast-Friendly And Frost-Sensitive Choices
• 31:25 Fashion Vs Function: Privet And Escallonia
• 34:00 Photinia, Conifers, And Lessons Learned
• 38:05 Laurel Debate: Benefits And Risks
• 43:10 Yew, Box, And Lonicera Alternatives

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:12

How's it going everybody? And welcome to episode 302 of Master My Garden Podcast. Now, this week's episode is covering a topic that I have covered probably every year around this time, and even a couple of weeks ago, I covered it in a small way, and it's the subject of hedges. And the reason I covered obviously at this time of the year, we're starting to come into bare root season, which is you know typically the I suppose the time where most people will start thinking about planning and planting hedges. And it's also the time of year where you have most options in terms of availability of plants and so on. And I suppose for people, you know, it keeps being requested. So even in the last week, I've got two questions on hedges and advice on hedges. And actually, one of the listeners had listened to the podcast, the previous podcast, but also wanted to kind of keep up to date with what is happening with certain hedges. So I mentioned previously, you know, if I went back a couple of years ago, I was talking about Portuguese laurel and you know how beautiful a hedge it is, and it is, but it has over the last two years started to develop some some problems. And you know, they're they're kind of asking, you know, where's the updated version or where's where's things at now today as we stand looking at hedges? So I'm gonna look at all the different types of hedges. I'm gonna look at you know why we choose hedges, what we use them for, what our considerations should be when we're looking at the correct hedge. And I think that's why people have so many questions for a few reasons. Like typically, you know, in in a lot of areas, a hedge is a long-term, it's something that you're putting in for the long term. If you're particularly if you're in, you know, rural gardens or you know, outside of the sort of town gardens, the urban gardens, your the amount of hedging that you're gonna have tends to be quite a lot. You know, you can have 50, 100, 200, 300 uh linear meters of hedging. So if this is something you're going to be looking at all the time over a long period of time, and you know, you're going to put quite an investment of money into it at that initial setup stage, then obviously you want to consider it and to you know make the right choice or not regret the choice that you have made. And so that's why I think the question keeps coming up, albeit that we've covered this episode and several times before. Um, just in terms of where we're at now, it's what the middle of November. I know that you know certain people are starting to lift bare roots at the moment. Still think personally it's a touch early because we haven't had anything like frost yet, you know, it still is quite growth, believe it or not. Um but there has been a huge amount of rain over the last month, as you all know, especially here in Ireland. So if you know if you're if you're planning on getting planting in the next couple of weeks, ground conditions are definitely not going to be favourable. But a lot of the nurseries now are starting to you know lift and are you know already selling bare root plants. So definitely start having a look and start thinking about it. So I suppose I'll cover it in it's gonna be kind of the same that we've covered before, but it will be with a little update and try and maybe give everybody that's listening, you know, the tools that they'll need or the information that they'll need to go and make that perfect choice for their gardens, whatever size shape it is. So I suppose when you look at the reasons for for planting hedges, generally speaking, and you know, there's always exceptions to this, but we're looking for one or many of these reasons that I that I'm gonna mention now. So, for example, if you're in a rural area, it could be stockproofing, it could be food source, like we had with Jason's question a couple of weeks ago, where he was looking for a hedge that may be delivered as a food hedge uh over time for him. So you know, it could be a food source. Uh privacy is a big one. That's uh one of the questions I got this week was in relation to privacy. Uh, shelter is a huge one in certain parts of the country, so you you're planting a hedge for shelter or to shelter a certain spot or an area uh to frame something, so that could be something like a little boxes hedge, framing a flower bed or framing um borders at the front of your house or whatever the case may be. It's also internal in the garden. A lot of people will use, you know, a lot of the open gardens will use hedges to create sort of garden rooms, so gardens within the gardens. So, you know, thinking to some of the good open gardens that we've had on the podcast, they have mentioned, you know, the the framing or or the the creation of these garden rooms within their gardens by the use of hedges of various types. Um you know, so that so that's that's a factor in in many people's. One of the biggest factors that we've seen over the last number of years is creating hedges as for you know to support biodiversity. And a lot of people talking about and obviously we spoke about it on the podcast, creating native hedges, mixed native hedges that create biodiversity corridors, you know, within the garden and allow insects and birds and so on to travel along it, providing food sources, providing you know sources of pollen um for bees and so on. So it is you know, that has become a big theme. Native also has become you know quite a big theme on people's on people's wish list. And yeah, we'll go through all of those, you know, and all of those pros, cons and so on. So this could be it could be a relatively long episode, but hopefully we'll we'll be able to sort of cover and give the information that will allow you, as I say, go off and choose the perfect hedge for your garden afterwards. So they're kind of all the reasons. The before starting to look at your hedge, just a couple of obvious things to look at. Hedging, most hedging will grow in the majority of gardens across the country, with a few exceptions to that. So, for example, if you're very in a very frosty area, there might be certain hedges that'll struggle, and I'll mention those as we go through them. If you're in a coastal area, potentially some of the hedges that we talk about wouldn't be suitable for a coastal area. Very, very wet spots, for example, um you might be in a in a wet garden and your fancy is for maybe beach hedging. So beach hedging does not like being being very, very wet. So potentially a good swap there could be something like Hornbeam, which will it doesn't love being dry being in a waterlogged side either, no plant will, but it will take a lot wetter ground than for example a beach. So it'll give you a similar look with with the the fact that it's able to survive in in kind of wetter ground. And that is the big thing is to is to just consider. Now, if your garden fits into I would say 90% of gardens, there'll be variances in it, but most hedging will kind of do well. Another good thing to do, as I've said many times, is have a look, you know, if you've moved into an area or if you've done a new build and you're looking to see what kind of hedging might suit your area, drive around within a few kilometres of your you know of your of your new house or your new site and see what's growing in the area. And that'll give you a good indication of what will work. You know, if it's if you're planting a hedge and or you you have a desire for a hedge and you drive every road within five kilometres and you don't see it, then you need to start just questioning a little bit. I'm not saying it won't work, but question a little bit whether that particular hedge that you're thinking of is suitable. On the other hand, if you choose a beach hedge and you drive half a kilometre up the road and you see somebody with a perfect beach hedge, then 99% chance that it's going to do really well for you as well. So that's a good way to kind of see what works in your locality. Um, but the majority will do in most gardens, but you just have to watch out for those things. Wind, um maybe frost pockets, really wet sites and things like that. And then just if if that is a factor, you need to just factor that into your your thought process as you go to choose these. The other thing to to think about is is of course the use that we spoke about, and there's many different uses and reasons why we plant. So when you factor those into your decision making, then that can be you know that can be really helpful at this stage as well. The next thing that you'll start to come on to, whatever your purpose for planting is, you need to obviously think about deciduous, which basically means that it will lose its leaves in the winter time, or evergreen, meaning that it will stay green all year round and look the same all year round. There's pros and cons of both. Obviously, the the evergreen is, you know, it's a stable, it will always look like that. There's no there's no times where it looks different, it always looks the same, and that's you know, for some people that's exactly what they want. And there's some brilliant, you know, there's some brilliant evergreen hedges. Some of those evergreen hedges give maybe more than one little benefit in that the some of them will provide provide berries. Uh again, we talk about those, the pros and the cons in a moment. But then on the on the other side of that, maybe you you know, if it if it's for biodiversity, then typically it's going to be the deciduous plants that you're going for, the hawthhorns, the the black thorns, the hollies. Sorry, that's uh evergreen, but uh rosa rigosa, you know, those type hedges. So there's those considerations as well. But we'll go through them all. I'm going to start with the deciduous ones, and I'm going to start with the one that I have the most linear meters of here. I grew I have actually what have I got? I've got beech, which is the predominant hedge around my garden. I have some grissolinea, I have some holly, I have cherry laurel. There's a bit of a story behind that. I don't know if we love it, but there's a bit of a story why I have that. Um I have Portuguese laurel, and I have a mixed hedge then out the back around the polytunnel. So I have four or five different types of hedges here, and yeah, it gives you a different different feel from it. I'm going to start with beach being a deciduous one, being the one that I have predominantly here, being my favourite hedge as well. And just I suppose the the only time beer that I don't like that is the it's that month where the buds are about to burst. The old leaf drops off, but the new one hasn't fully opened up yet. And at that stage, it can just look a little bit raggy, and that tends to be for a couple of weeks in the springtime, generally around end of March, early April. Up until that, you know, once you once you get into winter time, the autumn colour comes in, that looks nice, it stays and it holds its leaf all winter long. Uh regardless of the wind, it holds its it holds its leaf really, really well over the winter. It's then in the springtime when that new bud pushes out, it's that one month where it doesn't look well. But other than that, I think it's an exceptional hedge. Now, a lot of people who are advocates for you know biodiversity hedge and you know, only plant native and so on, I completely understand their point of view. But there is there is also another point of view. So these mixed native hedges can be very, very good food sources for biodiversity. And but to get their full benefit, as I mentioned on that podcast a couple of weeks ago, you need to allow them to grow out. And typically around, you know, surrounding a house, people prefer to have the the trimmed look. And something like beach is brilliant for that because you only need to cut it once a year, and that's a big factor when you're choosing your hedge as well, the number of cuts per year and how difficult it is to cut. We'll talk about those as we go through the list. But the other consideration from a biodiversity perspective, when you think about something like beach, is that as I say, people will say that that's not necessarily a biodiversity-friendly hedge because it doesn't contain a food source at any point in the year, and it's a long, it's a long hedge, and a lot of people will, you know, as I say, will say that that's a dead hedge effectively in terms of biodiversity. I would understand that point in that it is a long area without a food source in it, but I would say that what it does give you, and this is really evident, and I can give some good examples of it, it it really is a brilliant nesting source for birds, right? Okay, so it's not um, you know, it's not providing food for for birds, it's not providing food for pollinators, necessarily, it's not doing those type things. But from the point of view of where, you know, in a in a country where a lot of the hedging has been cut back, nesting nesting spots are quite becoming quite difficult for birds to find, then these hedges do provide good nesting sources. And because they're only getting cut once a year, and because they tend to be very, very thick, they actually provide really good nesting sites for birds. So there is that element of it from a biodiversity perspective. Um, so beach, my number one hedge, uh, my personal favourite, you're going to be planting those about three per meter, three to four per meter. Loads of people do the the double lines, so they'll stagger them, they'll plant two lines side by side and they'll be staggered. Um, I always question that. You use a lot of plants and also don't really know what the great benefit of it is. If you can imagine two rows of plants grown side by side, like okay, it'll fill out quicker, slightly quicker, but I don't see the benefit. I I always just plant a single row beach, and it just might take a year longer, but it's a perfect, perfect way to do it. Uh, another good deciduous hedge is horn beam, as I mentioned earlier in the intro. So that's a very good hedge, similar to beach, not dissimilar in look. The reason you would use that is if you're on a slightly wetter site, so it's a really good, it's a really good hedge from that point of view. Uh then we come into the you know the the true native ones you're talking about, the Hawthorn and Black Thorn. So, again, really good hedges. Like Hawthorne, for example, that's a brilliant hedge. Even if you're going to go for the really you know trimmed box type shape, that's where you're going to cut it and keep it trimmed, it's a brilliant hedge for that. It is it takes a little bit of time to get going, but once it gets going, it can it can create a lovely hedge. Nice, bright, vibrant coloured green leaves. In the springtime, it does drop its leaf, obviously. But it is a really nice, it is a really nice hedge. Then if you're allowing it to grow out, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, you're going to get the benefit of that flower, and obviously the you know, the berries later on in the year. So, in terms of biodiversity, that's a really strong biodiversity-friendly hedge. Black thorn is the same, probably one of the earliest ones to flow to flower. If you know, if you're keeping it trimmed, again, you don't really see the full benefit of it. But if you if you're allowing it to grow out, you'll see great benefit in terms of in terms of flower and also in terms of berries later on in the year. Rosa Ragosa, which is a dog rose, that's a brilliant one for flower again, really tough, brilliant in a mixed hedge because it gives you a little bit of a variation, gives you that flower. Again, good for good for pollinators. And another one with fantastic autumn colour within a mixed hedge is Vibernumopolis. So my mixed hedge has it has whitehorn, black thorn, rosa rigosa, vibernum opulis, it has hazel, and that's I think the five plants I have in it. It's as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, it's about 60%, 60 to 70% white thorn and black thorn, and then the rest is divided up in that. So it's a really good mix, really good mix. Uh so they're kind of your deciduous options. I might have missed one or two, but that's pretty much the broadly what's available in deciduous, as in loses the leaf. And they're all, you know, they all have their purpose and they all have their place. You know, just depends again on what you're what you're requiring from it. The majority of hedging though falls under the the evergreen option. And I suppose that has been, you know, because people like that stability that always looked the same. Um sometimes I guess the you know the evergreen hedge is going to give you that little bit more if it if it was privacy or if it was shelter you're looking for. Once it matures, it's going to be stay the same the whole time. So it does probably give you that little bit more, I suppose, surety of uh delivering on what it is that you wanted. So to go through the list, um there's lots of them, and you know, they all have pros and cons. A good one that I've mentioned before, it's one called uh Catoniaster Carnubia, and it's an evergreen, has a really shiny, glossy leaf. Quite a small leaf, or relatively small, sort of mid-sized leaf, but it's glossy, has unbelievable berries, so like stunning berries in the autumn time once it's mature. But again, to achieve that, it needs to be allowed to grow out a little bit. But it is a fantastic hedge from the point of view of being evergreen, giving you relatively quick to grow, grows on almost in any any kind of garden, very few sites it won't work in. And the autumn berry is it's phenomenal, like a really, really top-class autumn berry. And you know, that's a really good, it's a really good option as a hedge. Probably, as I say, you need to allow it to grow out to get the seed to full benefit. So if you're looking to keep a nice sharp, boxy cut on it, mightn't be the mightn't be the right one for you, but a very good one from the point of view of screening and privacy. And the thing about screening and privacy is that it doesn't have to be a hard a hard block that gives you that privacy. It can be just, you know, a more gentler, a more gentler approach. And I'll talk about it later on as as we finish off the episode. There's another way of doing it if you're not going planting in the ground, but let if you're sh screening off, say, a patio area, it doesn't necessarily have to be a solid um block of a of a hedge that you're planting. It can be something that you know it blocks off most of the view, so you're getting that privacy, but it's not fully blocked off in that you know you can still see out, you can still see in, but it's it's it's screening it. It's um, as I say, not a full block. So that's a really good hedge, the Catonias Carnubi in that scenario. You also mightn't need, if there's a particular area that you want to screen for privacy, you mightn't need to screen the whole thing. It might be just the case of three or four or five strategically planted hedging plants or trees that block the eye line to where it is that you want to you want to block off. Like if, for example, your sunroom is looking right on out onto your neighbour's sunroom, and at night time you're both able to view across from one to the other, then potentially you would want to screen that. But it mightn't take a lot of plants to do that. It could be just a few strategically ones planted to give you that sort of privacy that you're looking for, or to give you that space that you're looking for. So Catoniaster canoe would be a brilliant one with stunning autumn berries. One that's traditionally was traditionally used near the coast is grisselinia, again, evergreen, kind of a limey green coloured leaf, really good plant. Only time I've ever seen it struggling, and I have some of it in the garden, the only time I ever saw it struggling was backing the really bad, deep frosts over a month or six weeks that we had. I think it was 2010, 9 and 10 or 10 and 11, one or the other, and we had snow on the ground for several weeks, really deep minus temperatures here, and that was the only time I saw it struggling. And at that time, a lot of them did die, you know, once you were inland. Coastal-wise, brilliant plant for the coast, doesn't mind salt, you know, the salty rain or the salty wind at all. Um struggles a little bit with heavy frost, but touch wood, we don't get a huge amount of heavy frost. So we'll do in we'll do well in a lot of gardens. Next one is brilliant plant can be mixed into your native native hedging is elix or holly. The thing with holly is that it's very slow. So if you're looking to get something that's quick, holly's not the option. If you're looking for something that looks classy over time, holly's a great option, but you do need to give it that time. Realistically, you're looking at 10 years before you'll see it into a proper four-foot hedge that's thick. The other thing, if you're expecting to get berries or wanting to get berries, is that you'll have to just choose what varieties you're using. So there's there's Golden King, and there's um there's lots of different varieties out there. There's uh Golden King, Silver Queen, but you'll have to mix and match and make sure that they're compatible with each other. If you have a singular variety, you may not get your berries. So you're always looking for a pollination partner essentially to bring out those berries. But holly is a beautiful hedge. One of my favourite hedges, actually, except that you know it's slow, it does take time. Next one is definitely considered old-fashioned, still a good quality hedge. Still, it's but it's not planted much, you know. It's on a few lists now, but not too often. Definitely I've never seen anyone requesting it, but it is a good hedge, and that's privet. Uh so privet, you had the green privet and the kind of yellow, yellowy privet, both of them were planted en masse probably 50 years ago in Ireland. Really tough, really easy to cut. That's a big factor. I mentioned it already, but you want a hedge that's going to be easy to cut over time because if something is heavy and clunky and difficult to cut, as you get older, you know, you're in the garden in your later life, you don't want to be struggling over a big over a big hedge that's hard to cut. So the easier the hedge is to cut, the better for you in the long term. If it's going to be a long-term hedge, which most hedges are. So but privet is a good one. As I say, really out of fashion. Seen as old fashioned. Uh rarely have I seen anyone requesting requesting to to have it planted in their garden. But don't underestimate it, it really is a good hedge. You might have to cut it a couple of times a year to if you want to keep it into that trimmed, tidy look, but exceptional, exceptional hedge in in that it'll grow anywhere, really easy to cut, looks well when it's when it's tidy, but yeah, does probably have a little bit of a tag at the moment of being old-fashioned. And probably is I don't have one myself, but it is a good hedge. Don't don't rule it out. It could suit, it could suit your site. Another good one, definitely more for the coastal areas or areas where you're not going to get frost pockets, is Escalonia. There's a load of different varieties here. There's you know apple blossom, and there's several several varieties, all with really good flowers. Really easy to cut, uh, but doesn't like frost. So that's one one key thing to it. In terms of cutting, it's really easy. It doesn't actually get very woody at all. It's a lot of the growth tends to be a really soft growth, so it's easy to cut, easy to trim, beautiful flower on it, evergreen, so lots going for Escalonia, but again, not seen so much in recent years. It probably is a little bit less little bit less popular than it used to be. One that's hugely popular, one that people love at the moment, then I can't stand it myself is Fotinia Red Robin. I don't like it as a plant. Uh yeah, I get the I get why people like it. It has that fiery red look, but I just think it's troublesome not to run it down completely, but personally I think that it's prone to disease. The red, the red vibrant colour that you see in the new growth. I can understand why people would like that, and I do like the look of that myself. The problem with that is that if you're allowing it, if if you want to keep it as you know a hedge-hedge, typical sense that it's trimmed and so on, then nine times out of ten you're cutting off that redness, and you end up with what's underneath is a bit of a mismatch of greens, come reds, and everything in between. And for me personally, I think it's a bit finicky, is a bit disease prone, and don't like it overly. Don't like it as a plant, don't like it in plant you know in planting schemes. Uh I can understand why people would like it, but personally I don't, and I wouldn't recommend it as a hedge, and have often told people, because they like that red look, to not go for it. So yeah. Sorry for Tony Red Robin, but uh that's my take on it. Our next one is I suppose our memories or our thoughts around conifer hedges are probably have to be marred a little bit. We had the planting of Lilandi uh in every garden across the whole country, and now these these are being taken out left, right, and centre. When it comes to, you know, I mentioned earlier where it comes to hedges that are dead of biodiversity, definitely the likes of Lilandi would fall under that because they they're obviously you know they take over a garden, their roots kill out the ground underneath. They're just yeah, they were a bad idea. They were a bad idea, they do have a purpose, but not where we've seen them over the years. So we've seen these planted in loads of urban gardens, not suitable at all. We've seen them planted in you know places where they've been allowed to grow and their potential to grow is huge. They can grow really, really fast, really, really thick, and really, really tall. So when allowed to grow out, they're you know, they're they're a handful and they're a nightmare. They're definitely not good for for biodiversity. They probably do have their place. I'm not sure that their place is in any garden in Ireland, but they yeah, they they they have marred our I suppose our memories or our thoughts around when it comes to conifer hedges. However, there is some really, really good ones, and Touia Emerald is one of those. So Tui Emerald is a hedge that would have been planted quite a lot around that time as well, but it got taken over by Lilandi because the Lalandi was so fast. It basically everyone loved it because within two years you had a hedge and a strong hedge. And the Touya is a little bit slower, but it will grow in almost any site, is really easy to cut, doesn't get you know, expand out the way Lalandi does. Alright, it's not, it's definitely not, you know, in terms of biodiversity. It's not providing a huge amount, it doesn't provide any feed. Actually, probably doesn't even provide nesting site because it's a bit too tight. You know, the birds actually can't get into it unless there's a spot at an end or there's a you know a broken piece or something. But generally speaking, they're not overly suitable for nesting sites either. So, from that point of view, from a biodiversity perspective, there isn't a huge amount of benefit, but it's a really, really good hedge. So always evergreen, easy to cut, fills out extremely well, fills out really thick, grows on most sites. So it has a lot going for it, looks looks well, easy to trim, all those things. So that's one that don't rule out. If you like that conifer look, then something like a tuya is a brilliant option. So Tuya Emerald is the typical one that you'll see, and yeah, a really, really good plant. Then we come on to probably the most common, the most common of the evergreen hedges, and that's laurel in its various types. So we have uh prunus lustanica, which is the Portuguese laurel, and then we have prunus novita rotundafolia, which is the cherry laurel, and yeah, we'll talk about those separately. So Portuguese laurel first. I mentioned it before as being a great hedge, and it is a great hedge. Beautiful dark green leaf, really easy to cut, really quick growing, all those pros to it. The cons over the last couple of years, and I mentioned it, so it's picking up uh a mildew disease, which may which makes it look a bit gappy. It's also prone a little bit to shot hole, which basically is where you get a load of little holes in the leaf. And from that point of view, it's not as robust as it used to be. And that can happen with you know with something that comes on on trend after a while when when I suppose the populations across the country build up, then potentially afterwards diseases start to develop. In those initial stages, you don't see it too much, but over time it can happen. And it is one that's showing some problems at the moment. They're not problems that are you know, in terms of choosing a hedge. I wouldn't call them to be a deal breaker in that they're solvable, very solvable. Typically, any you know, any issue with a hedge, if the hedge is growing well, growing strongly, it will grow out and outgrow any kind of problems that it will have. So you're talking about good feeding, spraying the leaves with seaweed and so on. If you do get the problem, it's quite easy to solve, you know, typically speaking, but it is still prone to it. And you know, when people are choosing a hedge, generally what they're looking for is something that is just very, very little work. So, again, not too many cuts. Definitely you don't want to be having to treat it, you know. It you want it to be there, you want it to be solid, you want it to be healthy without having to put too much effort into it, and that's generally what people are looking for. Now, as I say, it still is a very, very good option as a hedge. It looks fantastic, but there is that slight caveat, this tiny caveat around that, where you do need to potentially give it a little bit of care, or potentially it can pick up some some issues. But they're not, as I say, not hard to solve. The cherry laurel, then on the other one, this is one that has a seriously bad rep at the moment. It's one of the most popular evergreen hedges, you know, from nurseries and garden centres' point of view. If you look at open gardens, estate gardens, and other places around the country, it was one that was brought in a number of years ago, and it just has become invasive in many places, and I know a lot of people now calling for it to be you know banned and don't plant it and so on. And again, I can understand, you know, because when it is let grow wild, and I've worked in Estate Gardens, you know, a number of years ago where cherry laurel was just taking over, and it's you know, from the point of view of if it's left grow, and this is why it's a problem in you know the likes of these big places. I saw Johnstown Castle recently, they were doing a big clear out of cherry laurel, and there's loads of other places like that where cherry laurel has just taken over, and they were planted you know, whatever, 100 years ago or whatever it was, and over time they're not maintained in a perfect hedge. What ends up happening is they can spread so many ways, they're very, very versatile, robust plants in terms of once they get into a landscape, they will they they have a an ability to stay there, so they can seed into the ground, they can layer themselves so a branch touches the ground, it will root very very easily into that ground. Now there's another plant, and the continue the can the cycle continues. Because they're so dense in terms of the leaves, they will block out any other plants that are in the area, and what you end up with is a dead zone essentially of just cherry laurel, and there's so many examples of that all over the country where it was allowed to get out of hand and spread, and then it became such that it killed all the native plants underneath it, and it's seriously aggressive, it's in a lot of forests, it's in a lot of woodlands, and there is huge work going on now across the country to take it out in a lot of places. So I can understand the call for people saying get rid of cherry laurel and all of those things. I also have some here I would never have planted, I would never chose to plant it. Actually, what happened was there was uh a motorway being opened and there was a skip load of cherry laurels being dumped, and somebody said to me, Do you want a few? So I got a few and I stuck them in. Do I intend to keep it in the garden? I actually am thinking of removing it. I'm not going to remove it straight away with lots of other things that need to be done first, but I do think that over time I will take it out completely. It was planted along a native hedge. The native hedge is still doing okay behind it because there's a lot of tall trees and hawthorn and and ash and so on in it, they're still doing okay. But it it isn't good for any of the smaller plants that you'll see underneath. So the likes of the hollies, the you know, any of the undergrowth, it's it's it's really it's really strong at blocking all those out. And so I don't want it to become a problem in you know 20 or 30 years where it's basically killing native plants behind it. But if it's being planted in a garden where it's going to be trimmed on both sides, trimmed on top and kept under control, then from that point of view it's a fine hedge. Don't love it, but it is a fine hedge, and I can understand why it is one of the most popular because it's robust, will grow in most gardens, relatively easy to cut, if being kept trimmed, it's very manageable, solid, always evergreen. Yeah, all of those things. Two different kinds of types out there's an Avita, which is kind of darker, a darker leaf, a little bit more pointy, rotunda folia is a slightly more lighter green, not quite lime green, but a light, slightly lighter green. And yeah, they're they're the kind of two main versions. Either are they roughly similar price, the very little difference between them only just kind of leaf colour and leaf shape, slightly different on both. Uh, but that's cherry laurel, yeah. Um depends who you talk to. As I say, a lot of people are totally, totally against it, calling for it to be banned and so on. I can understand that. I wouldn't say that it should be planted willy-nilly, it should only be planted somewhere where it's guaranteed to be cut on all sides. That's important. If you're if you're backing it up against something and it's allowed to travel out that other side, it will. Really clever, as I said, it has it travels through multiple ways and multiplies through multiple ways, and there's so many forests and various walks along rivers where cherry laurel is now the predominant plant, and obviously that's not good. From a biodiversity perspective, it's not good. And okay, you know, the plant itself doesn't look doesn't look untidy or anything, you know, it's not a an ugly plant, but it's certainly not as good as you know a nice mix of native plants. So the fact that it dominates those and takes them out of a of a landscape is why people are so so against it. A really good a really good um native native hedge, evergreen, is one called Taxaspicata. And this will be probably my favourite evergreen hedge. It's one that would have been used a lot, you know, in in sort of old estates years ago, and then it it be it sort of fell out a little bit, but it's one that I think should be growing in popularity. There is the caveat where you have to watch the the clippings of it. The clippings can be poisonous to certain animals, so just watch that if you're if you're dealing with with animals. But Taxas Picata is a superb evergreen hedge, perfect for topery, perfect for keeping trimmed, you know, tidy, boxing off areas. I really like Taxas Picata. It's available in a dark green, which looks just so classy, and also in because it's a kind of a limey green, a really light, like almost yellow colour, and they're a fantastic, that's a fantastic hedge. Slow growing, that's the only caveat as well, quite slow growing, like similar to Holly, in that it will take a bit of time to fill out as a hedge, but it's a brilliant, brilliant option. Another one is obviously the the boxus. One that's used quite a lot for framing areas, you know, little small areas around around beds, along driveways and so on. I'm actually at the moment planting, not here, um, in someone's garden, I'm planting boxes. They requested boxes down along the driveway, so a lovely boxus hedge on both sides of the driveway, and it looks looks really classy. So that's that's a nice, nice hedge. Again, people talk about it's issues around disease, and they became very, very, you know, a number of years ago, two or three years ago, people were saying don't plant it at all, and they were switching to you on a mascreen spire as an alternative, or Elix, there was a I can't remember the name of it now, but there was an uh people were given alternative options. I don't think it's as worrying as that. I think buxus, you know, is a resilient plant. There is boxus blight, buxus moth, but it doesn't take a lot to keep those issues at bay. And a bit like what I said earlier on the with the the Portuguese laurel, if the hedge itself is healthy and growing healthy, then typically it doesn't pick up any of those diseases. So once it's fed, once it's kept growing well, not neglected, uh, and as I say, getting a little bit of food so that it is growing vibrantly, then it tends not to pick up any issues anyway. So I wouldn't worry about planting it, but you know, it is a consideration in in if you're not going to be able to care for it at all, then maybe one of the alternatives is worth looking at. I just don't think the alternatives for that purpose of framing are anywhere near as good as boxus. So boxes for me is still still a very good hedge to plant. Another option that I have planted in recent years is one called Linissera nitida. Now, Linissera was seen as, and actually, if you look it up, it it is called poor man's box. But and I don't know why they call it that, because it's actually not that much cheaper than books' plants. It's it's maybe now because it's not that common, and there's not that much availability, but the plants are not that much cheaper than boxes. So I don't know where that where that name came from, but Linissarinatida is a really good option. And what it's what I find with it, it's it's very, very tough. Now it does need probably three to four cuts a year if you're going to be keeping it into that little small box style hedge. But what it is, it's much tougher. So if you had, for example, um where I planted it, was there was going to be a kid's football area, but there was a high wall beside it, and they wanted something that was just going to box hedge along at the top of the wall so that the ball wouldn't be rolling out. But it was going to get bashed a little bit by the ball, obviously, be right beside the football area. So rather than putting boxes in, which does not like being messed around, put in the Linissarin atida and it has worked brilliantly. Looks well, looks classy, does take a few trims a year to keep it looking tidy, but it's tough and resilient and will grow away there. Can be kept to kind of any height that you want, so it could be kept to let it up to four foot, or you could keep it at one foot. It's really it's a really good hedge from that point of view. So happy to be trimmed tight into a little small box or to allow allow to grow on up. So it'll grow in more styles, so it's a good option. As I say, poor man's box is what it's sort of known as, but it's uh it's a really good option, really good plant. So that's kind of I think I've covered all of this. So I've drawn up a list list here in front of me to remind myself. I think I've covered them all. There's probably some hedging plants that I've missed out on, but hopefully that gives you kind of enough information to choose the right hedge for for your garden. What you're looking at initially is to look at what is the purpose. Once you know the purpose of the hedge, then you move on to what's the you know the ground conditions, the soil conditions, the site conditions, and factoring in those things, you move on to the next question, which is do I want evergreen or do I want do I want uh deciduous? And you know, by going down decision-making process like that, you eventually end up with maybe one or two or three that you end up choosing your favourite from. So that's that's kind of how I go about it. I think it's a good way to look at it. Remember that you know, if you are going to be planting a hedge, typically it's been planted for the long term. So you want to put a little bit of thought into your into your choosing of your hedge and then make sure that you know it's suitable for what you're looking for, because you're going to be looking at it for such a long, long period of time. So, yeah, best of luck over the next couple of weeks. It definitely is hopefully the ground will dry up, but it's getting into that time period where everyone is going planting hedges. So hopefully that has helped you with your decision process. Um, next week's episode is Christmas Gifts for Gardeners for this year. Looking forward to that one. It's always a bit of fun, always some good, interesting gifts on it. Um, hopefully, yeah, we'll see some new things coming onto the list this year, things that we haven't come across before. But uh, that's been this week's episode. Hope it helps you with your choice of hedging. And that's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening, and until the next time, happy garden!