Suggestions for hedging shrubs please

[Goran]

Well, if You work hard all the calories burn.. We try whenever we find a time to have barbecue ( čevapćići, chicken, some pork, roasted veggies also).. But I am more for roasted lamb and scallions.. Šljivovica we drink usually at the beginning of a lunch, short toast and drink, later beer or wine..

 

[pargyle]

Well, if You work hard all the calories burn.. We try whenever we find a time to have barbecue ( čevapćići, chicken, some pork, roasted veggies also).. But I am more for roasted lamb and scallions.. Šljivovica we drink usually at the beginning of a lunch, short toast and drink, later beer or wine..

That's probably the right way but I was 17 years old, Yugoslavia was light years away from South Yorkshire by car and we were about the only English people there, we didn't know any better ... nobody spoke English, I managed a little German that we got by on.

We made three trips down there - 1966, 67 & 68 and more after that in the early 1970's and into the 1980's .... the later ones with my wife and children. Great adventures all of them ...loved every minute. Lovely, generous, friendly people who welcomed us and probably thought we were completely mad ...

We were there in August 1968 when the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia ... we were well down South near Split - that was a bit interesting.

 

[OrchardBees]

Osmanthus is great for pollinators too. Mine flowers twice a year (it's about to start now, and then again in the late summer) and it's always covered with insects. Evergreen, not too fussed about soil/light and very fragrant (I think it smells like burning plastic, but I've got 50ft of it, so it's a bit overwhelming)

 

[victor meldrew]

Osmanthus is great for pollinators too. Mine flowers twice a year (it's about to start now, and then again in the late summer) and it's always covered with insects. Evergreen, not too fussed about soil/light and very fragrant (I think it smells like burning plastic, but I've got 50ft of it, so it's a bit overwhelming)

I may try interplanting in an existing hedge ?

 

[victor meldrew]

I may try interplanting in an existing hedge ?

 

[Swn58]

Ahhhh ... Cevapcici in Lepinja slaked in Chillie sauce with a layer of fried onions washed down with a flagon of Reisling and topped off with a few shots of Slivovitz - that brings back a few memories ... sat in an open air barbecue in Rijeka in 1967.

Our equivalent is a chicken kebab with everything, three pints of lager and a couple of Sambucca .....

I know ... chav food ...do I care ?

I'm surprised you can remember anything!

 

[pargyle]

I'm surprised you can remember anything!

It's this morning and yesterday I have the most problems with ... I can clearly remember bits of the 1960's through the fog ......Yugoslavia was immensely memorable ... as indeed was watching the 1966 World Cup final in a bar in Munich on our way down there .... we were the only three English people in the bar .... we held our breath as the match finished with a draw - the commentary was in German and we were watching it on a small black and white TV over the bar... it went in to extra time with loads of noise from the German clientele - then the third English (disputed !) goal, (we thought it wasn't a goal) - but we quickly realised what had happened as the place suddenly fell totally silent, you could hear the drip of the beer from the bar taps ....then came that last goal from Geoff Hurst and there was no doubt ... we refrained from cheering - until we got outside ! Probably as close as I've ever got to an international incident ...

 

[John McC]

Whitethorn(haws) and blackthorn(Sloe) are great for early forage and look well in flower in spring. they also provide berries for birds in autumn. Mahonia and willow are a good source of very early pollen. Holly is also good for bees and again provides berries in late autumn/winter.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Whitethorn(haws) and blackthorn(Sloe) are great for early forage and look well in flower in spring. they also provide berries for birds in autumn. Mahonia and willow are a good source of very early pollen. Holly is also good for bees and again provides berries in late autumn/winter.

Blackthorn creeps out terribly though and you end up with suckers everywhere

 

[happyculteur]

We harvest the berries of white and blackthorn, mix them up, and make a very good jelly. The blackthorns do spread, but I find it happens very slowly and is easy to control. Not so bad as raspberries.

 

[Goran]

We have a lot of blackthorn ( grow wild as weed), but rarely bees on them. At that time bees rather attend real plums, wild cherries, willows.. Whitethorn.. later comes at my place, could help when other forage at time is failing ( black locust this past season at my place..).

 

[Goran]

We have also blackberries ( thorn free), but need support. We don't spray it, mostly later in season just when see ripe fruits, eat it.. Bees also adore it..

 

[user 20277]

Not strictly a shrub, more of woody perennial , but loved by bees, verbena bonasaris

 

[Curly green finger's]

Not strictly a shrub, more of woody perennial , but loved by bees, verbena bonasaris

It spreads like wild fire thou if its grown in the right condition.

 

[E&MBees]

It spreads like wild fire thou if its grown in the right condition.

If you leave the seed heads to develop at the end of the season, Goldfinches will eat them. I had a flock down the other day, stripped the seed heads bare in about 10mins.

 

[amandaj57]

Thanks for all the suggestions, some of which I already have in the existing (and now fairly ancient hedgerows) and some that I hadn't even considered.
I am going to get some ordering done over the next couple of days or so and am hoping to start some planting by the end of the week. Hopefully the girls will appreciate it over the coming years.

 

[Beekeeper Brownie]

Another species which would be useful to increase diversity and flowers is Snowberry - Symphoricarpos. It might have been mentioned and I could have missed it.