Thanks for your trouble Ivan - it's much appreciated.
I think you guessed rightly and that it is ' a bit of both' we are trying to achieve. I think the mix of deciduous and evergreen is a good idea and probably what we'll go for.
Possibly adding holly to your list, but certainly no leylandi!
Robert, depends what you want to achieve with the planting. Do you want nest sites , food for birds or a mixture of both. I would opt for a mixture of evergreen and decidous type. Box provides dense cover with lots of spiders, also good for nest sites, hawthorn, pyracantha and berberis are all good for nests in summer and food in winter with loads of berries. Prepare the soil well with plenty of organic manure. Plant med size bushes so you can see some benefit quite quickly and prune them in the spring when they reach a height you are happy with. They will bush out and not get too leggy. Dont prune them when the birds are nesting and when they are full of berries. If you just want a nice hedge portugese laurel is a nice evergreen hedge or copper beech gives a good summer hedge which will be used for nests and a lovely copper leaf in winter. Not much food, but birds will ferret through it looking for spiders etc. Try not to go for the leylandi type conifers they grow too big and dense and although give plenty of cover you will not see the birds as they will just hide in it and feed on spiders. Cheers and good luck.
We have a bare patch in the garden between a driveway and an 8 foot panel fence. The ground slopes from the fence to the drive ( back to front) and is approx 6 foot deep and about 20 feet long. More or less South facing.
There are some trees the other side of the fence and we do see a reasonable variety of garden birds knocking about. Do any of the greener fingered members have any suggestions as to what me might plant to provide cover and or food in this patch?
