Prickly bushes

Jessey

Well-Known Member
Dec 20, 2004
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Suffolk, UK
I need your help, I have the least green fingers ever but want to plant a couple of bushes in strategic positions, which will eventually dissuade intruders and also just block off an eye saw.

The first spot is sandy soil, has a brick wall running east-west and I want to plant something prickly at the end between it and a row of very large leylandii which run north-south (so its effectively in a SW facing corner), so it gets sun for a few hours in the afternoon but is mostly in shade. The gap is about 6ft wide.

Spot 2 is on a east-west wall that's north facing, its where I blocked off the courtyard, and I'd just like to cover it up so its not such an eye saw, same sandy soil and only gets a little sun in the early morning and late evening really. This one I don't mind if it isn't prickly but it wouldn't hurt, main thing is fast growing and to cover an area 12ft wide by 6ft tall :D This does already have honey suckle and ivy at one end and another creeping bush I can't id at the other end, would I be better trying to train across an already established bush?

Spot 3 I can't imagine anything growing in but I'll ask just in case, (not even nettles grow here) it is between a north-south wall and the north-south leylandii, it doesn't get sun. This does already have honey suckle and ivy at one end and another creeping bush I can't id at the other end, would I be better trying to train across an already established bush?

Ideally what ever goes in needs to be quick growing, or cheap to buy in already fair size plants. I don't even mind a horse safe weed as longs as it won't spread too much :)
 
From memory I "think" we had a particularly prickly berberis bush at ou first house, which grew quickly. Hawthorn is quite pricky too? But not sure how expensive it would be. We inherited it at our last place.
 
Could you opt for some sort of weed that's free and would benefit the horses?
We have thistles that I train to stay in a spot and act as a wind break.
Brambles are a good deterrent if you keep your eyes on it and train it to wrap
Bracken
 
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Pyracantha (firethorn) is very prickly, quick growing, tough and tolerant of most soils and aspects. It has nice berries for birds too. You can cut it and cut it to shape and it just goes on growing, up to 50cm per year, a very tolerant plant. I have it growing and thriving right against a north facing fence and it's gone up 2m in 4 years so I'm sure it would be fine in positions 1 and 2.

It's cheap to buy in garden terms: this is for a 2 litre pot with a plant starting about a metre high https://www.best4hedging.co.uk/pyra...MItZaRnZib1QIVJLHtCh2r5wjaEAQYAyABEgL1I_D_BwE

This guys have very small print but also have 2 litre pots at a similar height for £9 and a suggested planting density of 3 or 4 per metre https://www.hedgesdirect.co.uk/acatalog/pyracantha_red_berries.html

Position 3 I agree with @newforest brambles are probably your best option.

In the longer term you should consider blackthorn/hawthorn and holly. Hawthorn well trimmed is completely impenetrable and holly hurts like the blazes! These guys sell native hedging "whips" - single shoots of young trees - at good prices https://www.hedgesdirect.co.uk/acatalog/mixed_native_hedging_range.html. You could plant the whips on the south side of your pyracantha and cut down or remove the pyracantha as the slower growing native trees mature.
 
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Firethorn looks just the job :D its on the police reccomended list of defensive bushes too, I just didn't know if it would like a low sun area :)

I have several little hawthorn whips I could transplant, they've sprouted from the bigger bushes all over the place. And brambles, I have mountains of brambles :)
 
Just to add that our soil conditions are very like yours, poor, sandy and slightly acid, and it loves it! I don't think it would cope with area 3 but might be worth a try
 
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