I moved into our greater London home nearly 6-years ago and inherited the front garden of a retired chap who absolutely packed it out with bushes. Being in full time employment and having 2 young kids, I was never going to have the time to maintain it other than chopping back. In addition, he seemed to like anti-social plants like spanish dagger and euphorbia which aren’t exactly child friendly!
Over time, bush by bush seems to have died off and I now have a wild mess. Hedging along the front is necessary for privacy and noise because it’s a busy road with both trafffic and pedestrian.
I’m assuming bushes just died over time due to competition for water? It seems like certain plants like laurel thrived at the expense of others leylandii type ones. I’m also finding the leylandii difficult to manage as it just grows outwards into the pavement area and cutting back is limited before getting to the dead innards!
I’d take any advice on how to create a more manageable garden. I’m thinking this might be a professional job in which case anybody know roughly what I’d need to budget?
by ServeMaster101
11 Comments
They will probably spring back when it starts raining again. Be very careful of getting rid of established bushes if you can avoid it! I think it looks nice FWIW although you could add some annuals if you want some colour right now.
https://preview.redd.it/0kcvs0iiryeh1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b6259a76b5eb38f97e7b253ea6df5dc897024d8d
Here is the before (6-years ago)! Some of the loss wasn’t our fault, he had a lot of box plant that got savaged by the box caterpillar. This created the initial ‘holes’ in the garden.
Shrubs are really useful for year round structure, height and interest, plus a great backdrop for flowers and other plants. If anything is dead or you hate it, get it removed by a tree surgeon. Keep the rest and start adding plants you love, whether it be more shrubs or some perennials/flowers. Gardens without shrubs look terrible in my opinion.
I feel like packing your garden full of bushes is considered very low maintenance. Since it still looks good after 6 years I’d say the previous owner did you well!
If the bushes are truly dead I would just replace for new ones in the autumn and let them grow!
This really looks ok to me it’s just battered by the difficult summer we’ve had. Unless you’re feeling really ambitious I’d just aim to plug the gaps and maybe add some flowering plants and different leaf colour.
Good plants for sun and dry areas include cistus, berberis, perovskia, salvias, and ceanothus. Id also add some stonecrop and stachys to plug those lower gaps and cover soil, which helps suppress weeds and retain water.
Nothing seems to be dead but if you are having issues with box, people generally just give up on it. I’ve got some myself and it’s a faff to treat it so I’m getting rid.
I think youd also benefit from buying a hedge trimmer and having a go at the bushes a few times a year.
I’d consider completely replacing that hedge. Potentially with beech. I suspect you’ll struggle to do that this year with the weather likely also affecting price of decent whips come the autumn planting season.
A trim to shape some of the bushes would do wonders I think. Possibly take some of the plants (nearer the grass) out in certain areas to make a flower patch instead as they don’t grow as out of control usually in my opinion, but do need watering (which my young son loves to help with)
I had a couple of trees/large shrubs removed and the stumps ground out two years ago. Quotes were between 200 and 400 depending on size of the tree, but I’m in the North West. I would contact four people with good reviews in your area and get quotes to compare. For the spaces you want to fill, I’d go with something like naturally conical evergreens (make sure the ultimate height is something you’re okay with though). They won’t need pruning, the shape will contrast with the rounded ones you already have, and they will give an air of neat organisation even when the others are a bit shaggy! Very Christmassy too! Otherwise, if you liked the box, hebe green globe is a lovely green ball that goes that shape naturally without pruning. Always a good idea to ask the neighbours (with similar aspects) for their opinions on what grows well in the soil and their favourite low maintenance plants. You might even get a cutting.
It’s a nice, old school shrubbery type garden, however as you’re finding out it needs careful maintenance. Have you got allotments near? You might find an experienced amateur gardener happy to help, or knows someone good.
My retired neighbour also has a garden full of bushes and strange things like 5 foot long sections of privet hedge and box hedge randomly placed when there is already a fence.Maybe its a thing??
Conifers and laurels as hedges are high maintenance, they need a light trim every 6 to 8 weeks to look good all year round. The rest is reasonably low maintenance with thinning and pruning required no more than twice a year.
Don’t mess around trying to make it livable with if you’d rather do something entirely different with it, know what you want and aim for that rather than wasting time and money on something you neither like or want, would a fence, grass and a central tree be more acceptable? Maybe something else, don’t get professionals in until you’re certain you know what you want them to do, always think long term when it comes to gardening.