Fruity hedges.

[Darwin.]

After levelling a bit of a bank yesterday I'm left with about 10m of open space at the bottom of my orchard that needs a hedge planted. It's a very spongy area, there's a little stream running along it and a bog the other side of that. The ground won't be too wet though because it'll be planted above the water line.

Because it's in the orchard I'd like to have a hedge of something that probuces fruit or berries that I can use. The bloke in the garden centre suggested a hedge of hardy rose shrubs that produce hips I can make wine out of.

I had considered blackthorn for the sloes because someone mentioned making wine from that too.

Has anyone got any suggestions

[rustylady]

The bloke in the garden centre suggested a hedge of hardy rose shrubs that produce buds I can make wine out of.

I had considered blackthorn for the sloes because someone mentioned making wine from that too.

Has anyone got any suggestions

Firstly the roses don't produce buds for making wine, it's the seed pods (hips) that are formed after the flowers fade that are used for winemaking. Horrible messy job prepping them.

Blackthorn for sloes would be good.

How about something like this Mixed Edible Hedging for Sale | Packs of 50 Plants | Fruit & Nuts

[chris]

Raspberries, currants too - you can also buy a few, then bulk up each season by rooting some stems/suckers/prunings. Unless you want it as a full hedge straight away?

[VirginVegGrower]

Japanese Wineberries, blackthorn, hawthorn, rosa rugosa for hips. I'd get all different. Chap last weekend reckoned the French take Jargonelle pear trees and weave them into hedges because their branches are whippy. I'd get damsons, bullaces and gages in there as well.

[Darwin.]

It'd be nice to have a full hedge straight away but I like watching things grow so I'll be getting young bushes to start with.

That's a lot of suggestions, glad to see it. I suppose a mush mash if different things would be good even if it was a bit ugly.

The roses appealed to me because I figured the flowers might bring bees and other bugs into the garden.

[SarzWix]

Mixed hedges aren't ugly, they're a beautiful patchwork of different colors r and textures, have a long range of flowering times, and give wildlife a much better environment because the food is staggered too

[Darwin.]

That's what I'll do so. I'll plant a mixed hedge of blackthorn, roses and one or two other things.

[VirginVegGrower]

Just be aware with young children that blackthorn and to some extent rosa rugosa have vile thorns. May be a consideration. The scent of wild hedgerow roses is heady and gorgeous. Pink and white in rosa rugosa. Do you not have Aldi/Lidl in Ireland as they sell bare root ones RIGHT NOW?!

[mothhawk]

Blackthorn suckers like it's trying to take over the world, so unless you have grass alongside the hedge that you can mow, which will keep the suckers under control, I wouldn't grow it. There are plenty of sloes in the field hedgerows usually.

What about hazel? Nuts, pea sticks and beanpoles all free.

Edit: trimming blackthorn is a pain too, both the job itself, and gathering up all those viciously thorned clippings, which go straight through wellies, if stepped on.

[Darwin.]

What does suckers mean? That it spreads? We had blackthorn hedges on the farm when I was a kid, I had a few nasty injuries, the worst being a thorn to the kneecap.

Are cobb nuts like hazel? I have two of those but they're half the size of anything else I have planted down there. This is their 3rd year down there so hopefully they have a bit of a growth spurt this year.

As kids we used to walk the fields of neighbouring farms picking blackberries and apples from an orchard nobody tended but if I went searching for anything now I'd almost expect to be done for trespassing or stealing.

My father has a small farm again so I must ask him if he has blackthorn.

[FB.]

What does suckers mean? That it spreads?

Think of it like an old clump of raspberries, where new canes continually emerge from below ground, mostly close to the mother plant but occasionally a foot or two away.

Suckers is generally used to mean shoots which emerge from roots just below the surface, so what was a one-stemmed plant ends up with potentially dozens of stems.
Worse still, if you prune the suckers (especially if pruned around early springtime) you get several vigorous new shoots for every one you cut off.

Grafted plants (rootstocks) which sucker are undesirable because they may take over from the original fruiting part. None or only minimal suckering is thus highly desirable for grafted fruit trees.
Hawthorn, when used as a rootstock for apples or pears, may spend its first several years sending up vigorous thorny suckers.
The apple M7 rootstock and plum St.Julien A is considered to be bad for suckering, and many dwarf rootstocks of all fruit types are fairly prone to suckering because of the impaired sapflow at the graft which causes the roots to "vent-off" excesses of nutrients in the form of root suckers because they can't force the nutrients through the graft quickly enough.
My pears on Quince also produce vigorous suckers (Quince suckers have burrknots <knobbles on the stem which will root> and can be cut off and rooted fairly easily!), although I have not seen Quince rootstocks mentioned as being prone to suckering.

[DuncanM]

Hawthorn can be used as a rootstock for apples?!

[VirginVegGrower]

We have a hawthorn hedge bordering the farm fields. We have stuck sloes in to fill the gapping at the bottom. It just gets a hedge trimmer up its front and the farmer does the top off. We bring him a cuppa. He drops off muck. It's easy to maintain a hedge and has many benefits

[Feral007]

Ahhhh that explains the vicious thorns in the chook forest and around the nest boxes! The suckering plum - the kindest thing I've said about it recently!

[roitelet]

How about Gooseberries or Red currants? DON'T plant blackthorn it is a pain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!