Read all about it, my interview with HGTV…. All about hedges and their usefulness.
Recreating Eden Landscape Blog
"A garden that pleases me is a garden…designed with deliberation" – David Hicks
Read all about it, my interview with HGTV…. All about hedges and their usefulness.
Recreating Eden Landscape Blog 
Talent will out!
Thank you Lisa, you are very kind.
Interesting reading, thank you for sharing it. I’m pondering on an evergreen screen and windbreak northwest of my greenhouse. Gardenias work well for me; I’ve this big vintage gardenia that I’ve already successfully made hedges elsewhere.
If I want a hedge day before yesterday, Carolina cherry laurel will reach great heights in a hurry but birds will turn it into a forest. If I am willing to wait a couple of years and don’t mind being out of style, variegated euonymous grows pretty fast.
A hedge of gardenias!! Fabulous. I love their fragrance.
Had to laugh about the Cherry Laurel, Yes it does grow fast.
Nice! I planted a privet hedge at a house that I was going to sell…and turn over the endless maintenance to the new owners. Then the housing market imploded and the house is now a rental. Guess who gets to whack that hedge now…about every other month…I guess the joke was on me. 🙂
Gayle, privet was probably not the best choice for this situation. There are evergreen shrubs that do not require pruning, like holly and arborvitae. Some cultivars are very narrow so they would suit a small city lot & still provide the windbreak or privacy desired….. Karma strikes again!!
My entire backyard is hedged – in the lower section near the house & my patio I have Fortune’s Tea Olive (O. x fortunei) and it is wonderful but does need to be kept in check. Other hedges I have are pittsporum. Nellie Stevens holly. All do need trimming from time to time but to be able to sit on my patio in early a.m. in my pjs enjoying cup coffee and the birds with my neighbor just about 50 feet or more away is great.
If I had it to do over again, would not use the NS holly because it has tended to suffer from some very unprofessional pruners I’ve had here who have limbed it up from the bottom leaving it with mighty bare trunks part way up.
But the tea olive grows quite dense, no pests/problems and I used it a few years ago at my church to hide a very unsightly bare wall – it has done exactly what I wanted it to do and has flourished next to a black topped parking lot.
Thanks for a great article, Sandra – you are so talented.
Carolyn, you have some of the very best plants! Trimming from time to time is a small price to pay for that wonderful privacy. I am particularly fond of Nellie R. Stevens holly, too bad it was badly pruned.
What a nice surprise to come home to after a horrendous week. That`s my Sandra……Love ya…..M