Waiting for hedges

Hedges frustrate me.  The trouble is I'm not a patient soul.  I want everything NOW or better still a week last Thursday.  Hedges, unfortunately, don't fit with this sort of timescale.  Unless you are prepared to take out a second mortgage for some pre-grown sections, you are left with only two options.

First, you can plant a fast grower.  Privet is a good example of this and is something I would not wish on my worst enemy.  We had a privet hedge at our last house and it reminded me of those intensely annoying candles that relight.  No sooner had you finished a laborious day's hedge cutting, than it would spring up again needing another trim.

Second, you can be terribly sensible and plant something like yew - a gorgeous backdrop to any planting, stately, majestic, only needing an annual cut - and very, very, very slow.  Here most gardeners will tut and say "No it's not, you'll have a fine hedge in only five years time".  Five years!  Can you imagine waiting five years to have your bathroom plumbed in or your kitchen finished?  Exactly.

The only people less patient than me are the children.  This is rather unfortunate as one place I have planted a yew hedge is on the boundary of their new gardens.  I pointed at the collection of small, weedy looking plants, barely a foot high and said, in my best Mary Poppins chirpy voice, "Look, you've already got a hedge!"

They gave me a look which said it all.

However, today I have found the solution.  I was walking past the veg beds when I spotted the perfect hedge to span the wait.  It's about two foot high, comes in either a vivid green or beautiful shade of purple, is incredibly cheap and the kids can plant it themselves.  Oh, and it's edible.

OK, so it's a line of bolted lettuces, but I still think it looks better than most things in the garden right now.  And, yes, it's not going to last very long, but then you have the fun of resowing it throughout the growing season - and even changing the shade whenever you fancy.  I am calling it the Peter Rabbit hedge, because I feel he would have approved.

Comments

[Karen - An Artist's Garden]

How lovely Dawn :)
I am very fond of bolted lettuces I think they are lovely to look at.

I think you may have to patent the "Peter Rabbit hedge" for children's growing spaces all over the country
K
Ps I wanted Yew - but don't have that many years left in me - so went for griselinia.
Privet smells horrid

[Zoe]

Love this post! We planted a hedge 2 years ago of mixed native woods - blackthorn, wayfaring, hawthorn, hazel, beech, and I'm surprise at how quickly it's started looking like a good hedge (ie within 2 years, yes still too slow for kids I know) - only the beech has been much slower to grow. Also wanted to let you know about this:
http://kidscraftweekly.com/gardens_issue.html
I don't suppose any of it is really new to you, but still, if you don't know kids craft weekly, you'll soon find out she has lots of great ideas.
Zoe
http://www.kuvik.net/ztoft/playingbythebook/

[Dawn/LittleGreenFingers]

Oh Karen - you remind me of my granny who used to read the last page of a book first 'just in case she died before she finished it'. You optimist, you!

[bangchik]

Vegetables as hedges... That's definitely very practical and fast.... ~bangchik

[Tracey Bennett]

You need to grow some of those odd pointy radishes he eats too!

[Potty Mummy]

Just make sure that when you empty your lawn cuttings there are no little ears pricking up through the grass on the compost heap...

[Potty Mummy]

Hi, just to let you know that I've put you up as British Mummy Blogger of the Week. Have a good day!