[dan808]

Hi, can anyone suggest a quick growing thorny hedging plant to keep the kids/thieves  out off my plot has to be very cheap or free as I have to cover  approx 100m at about a metre thick. I know it will take a while to grow so I don't mind a few year waiting time.

[dmg]

Hi Dan,
We planted hawthorn bushes at our site, they put on about 5 inches of growth during the first season and very thorny

dmg

[surbie100]

Blackthorn. Fast to grow and hurts like hell when you get a thorn in you. I can testify to that. 

[GrannieAnnie]

Mmmm agree that blackthorn is fast.  Pyracanthus is good too, but don't know how quick growing it is.

Not sure how you would manage free, unless you went around taking loads of cuttings, but for cheaper, look online for nurseries etc rather than Garden Centres.

You can get specialist growers.  I knew a chap when we loved in Essex that sold blackthorn and other bushes cheaply, but haven't got any details about him.

[RichardA]

Agree on hawthorn or blackthorn - also rosa regusta berberris and pyracantha (spelling may be off with these -- sorry) one plus is that blackthorn will give sloes in time which can be used. Consider the time you will spend trimming hedge and then collecting and disposing of cuttings, Would a wire fence covered in raspberries or blackberries and similar berries do the job??

[dan808]

Thanks guys, do you know if it is the right time to start planting blackthorn and will I need to prepare the soil?

[surbie100]

Yes, now is great if your soil isn't too claggy to dig. We're re-doing our hedge in a couple of weeks' time as it's so wet where we are. Be careful of the thorns. One went through the back of my rigger gloves and at the moment my hand looks like a puffer fish.

[savbo]

I love blackthorn for security hedging but it suckers freely, so I wouldn't plant it around a plot. The septic response to the thorns is also well known.

One way around the wait for hawthorn is to put in a 'dead hedge' of cut branches woven between stakes and plant under this....by the time the dead hedge falls apart the hawthorn is through...

another option is to mix thorny plants with fast-growing dense ones like fuchsia (see it all over NW ireland) or even Duke or Argyll's tea tree (aka goji berries)

sav

[dan808]

Nice idea sav but what do you mean buy it suckers freely?

[savbo]

Nice idea sav but what do you mean buy it suckers freely?

if you go out to the countryside you see that blackthorn forms dense thickets, with new plants coming up from the roots of the older ones...these will pop up in your beds unless there is some kind of barrier

[dan808]

I'll take than in consideration thanks 

[Lawrence]

I bought some Berberis to put around vulnerable areas.
It's vicious!
I also have a lot of hedge to plant, so please keep adding suggestions

[Trillium]

A line of black raspberries can be very nasty as well, and fast growing and spreading.

[aelf]

bare root Hawthord whips (1 or 2 years old) are a cheap way of buying in bulk from nursaries and now is the right time to plant them. When I did mine, i just drove my spade into the ground, wiggled it about to open up a slit and popped the whip in (1 ft apart). Prune the tops out when the hedge is about a foot below the final hight that you are aiming for (this makes pruning easier later). 3 years after planting mine they were well established as a barrier, now, some ten years later I have a mature hedge 

[savbo]

bare root Hawthord whips (1 or 2 years old) are a cheap way of buying in bulk from nursaries and now is the right time to plant them. When I did mine, i just drove my spade into the ground, wiggled it about to open up a slit and popped the whip in (1 ft apart). Prune the tops out when the hedge is about a foot below the final hight that you are aiming for (this makes pruning easier later). 3 years after planting mine they were well established as a barrier, now, some ten years later I have a mature hedge 

I usually prune hawthorn hard as soon as I have planted a hedge....field grown whips are usually quite straight and have only a few side branches, so a brutal trim (as much as half their height) encourages bushy growth and also reduces wind rock/water stress (by reducing leaf:root ratio)... seems mean when you do it but it pays dividends I think.

sav