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You wrote once about a flowering mixed hedge that sounded rather attractive. We have a 150ft (45m) boundary, currently a post-and-rail fence.

We would like to plant a hedge that will grow to about 8ft (2.5m) and not need too much maintenanc­e.

It would be good to include something with berries for the birds. Our soil is heavy clay and the area gets plenty of sun.

ANNE HAWKINS – VIA EMAIL

My recommende­d components for a flowering mixed hedge consisted of mostly evergreen flowering shrubs, providing berries and cover for birds, as well as forming an informal “backdrop” in a smallish garden.

This sounds as though yours may be a country garden boundary, and I would recommend therefore that you add some more rural hedging plants to the mix of ornamental garden shrubs (e.g. holly, deciduous hawthorn and field maple), to create a more natural picture.

The following shrubs are pretty tough, will tolerate your clay soil (but do take the opportunit­y, when planting, to add plenty of organic matter) and if carefully spaced, about 3ft (1m) apart, they will fairly quickly form an interwoven hedge: Viburnum tinus, Photinia × fraseri ‘Red Robin’, Rosa rugosa (larger varieties), Eleagnus ebbingei, Cotoneaste­r (e.g. lacteus or franchetii (red and orange berries respective­ly).

Scaled up, maintenanc­e is not “low”. All these plants are “individual­s” with different growth habits (some blobby, others weepy), so this is not a hedge for a bi-annual hedge-trimmer blitz, but one that needs carefully timed trimming with loppers or secateurs, to maintain shape and promote flowering.

While in a small garden, this could be seen as satisfying and therapeuti­c garden “faffery”, for a long hedge like yours it could be viewed as unacceptab­ly high maintenanc­e.

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