Which hedge should you choose? Hedging plants compared

Evergreen or not, fast or slow, for sun or shade, and good for birds? How to choose the right hedging plant, with the pros and cons of the best-known species.

A hedge will be there for decades. So choose carefully: a hedge you have to trim every month, or one that spreads into the countryside, soon becomes a burden.

Five questions before you choose

1. Evergreen or not? Do you want privacy in winter too, or can the hedge be bare for a while?
2. How tall and how wide? A 1 m hedge calls for a different plant from a 3 m windbreak.
3. Sun or shade, wet or dry soil?
4. How much work? Fast growers need trimming two or three times a year.
5. For wildlife? A mixed, native hedge provides flowers, berries and nesting sites.

Deciduous, but still dense in winter

Grown as a hedge, hornbeam and beech often hold on to their dry, brown leaves all winter. They’re sturdy, take pruning well and are native. Hornbeam grows on almost any soil, including wet, heavy ground; beech needs well-drained soil.

Field maple makes a tough, native hedge with yellow autumn colour, and copes well with drought and chalky soil.

Evergreen

• Yew: the finest evergreen hedge; slow-growing, and tolerates shade and hard pruning. Poisonous to people and animals.
• Holly: native, prickly and impenetrable, with red berries on female plants.
• Privet: fast and cheap, semi-evergreen (in hard winters it loses some of its leaves).
• Box-leaved honeysuckle: small leaves, a good alternative to box.
• Laurustinus: flowers in winter.
• Leyland cypress: grows very fast, but needs two or three trims a year and won’t tolerate being cut back into brown wood.

A mixed, native hedge

A hedge of different native shrubs is the best choice for birds and insects: it flowers from March to June, produces berries from summer until deep into winter, and the thorns protect the nests.

• Broadleaf treeHawthornCrataegus monogyna
• ShrubBlackthornPrunus spinosa
• ShrubHazelCorylus avellana
• ShrubDog roseRosa canina
• ShrubCommon dogwoodCornus sanguinea
• ShrubGuelder roseViburnum opulus
• ShrubWild privetLigustrum vulgare
• Broadleaf treeField mapleAcer campestre

Plant them mixed together, in groups of three to five of the same species. A hedge like this only needs trimming every other year, or you can let it grow freely into an informal hedgerow.

Planting

• When: deciduous bare-root hedging from November to March; evergreen hedges are best planted in September–October or in April.
• How many: allow 3 to 5 plants per metre, in a staggered double row for a dense hedge.
• Distance from the boundary: in Belgium and the Netherlands a hedge is usually planted at least half a metre from the property boundary, and trees that grow taller than 2 m at least 2 m from it. Planting right on the boundary is only allowed by agreement with your neighbours. If in doubt, check with your local council (gemeente or commune).