Help with bushes!

Hi. Would love some advice please...
I have a huge wall in my garden, that I want to restrict my toddler from climbing up. I was thinking about planting some bushes in front of it.
But, as a new gardener I have no idea what to plant! I was thinking of thick bushes that are relatively easy to prune so that I can just shape them nicely as they grow, and nothing prickly. Something that keeps it's leaves all year round perhaps?
It's only a small garden, but they would get direct sun most of the day.
If anyone has any suggestions I'd really appreciate it. Thank you :-)

 

Hi, and welcome Laurel (could be planted as a hedge, along the wall, so-to-speak). if grows quite broad - you can cut it to shape & size, like any hedge, its just that its "style" is to want to grow quite wide.

Or some other (smaller leaf) hedging plant that you could plan to Topiary - into some interesting shapes - in years to come.

Or would you prefer some pretty flowering bushes? I imagine a kid that wants to clip the wall might be going to knock nine-bells out of ornamental plants, and you need things (in the short term at least) that will tolerate being the backdrop for football and cycling accidents etc.?

 

Hi, thank you for your reply :-)
Yes, I think anything ornamental would get wrecked pretty quickly, and so I'm not fussed on a flowering bush. I keep my flowers in pots so that I can move them out of danger!
I like the idea of a hedging plant, especially shaping it as it matures (and as my little boy does too!) Is there a specific name I should look to buy, or do I just ask for hedging?
Thanks!

 

Things with small leaves, which don't mind being cut back, will make the best topiary choices.

Typically Box or Yew is used. Box probably won't like being used as a crash barrier! and latterly there have been outbreaks of Box Blight which is pretty devastating to the plant, so perhaps best avoided.

The berries on Yew are poisonous ... but so are probably half the plants in your garden (my view is that education is best - your child will visit other people's gardens which won't be poisonous-plant-free) including washing hands after picking flowers / touching plants. But if the child will be unsupervised in the garden and is still at the "everything should be tried for taste" age you might need to be more careful. I'm assuming a wall-climbing child is past the age of eating everything on a have-a-go basis

Yew is not slow growing (as people often thing) but it certainly isn't as fast as many other things. Yew plants tend to be relatively expensive, but that depends a bit how many you need. Generally you would plant them about 2' apart (Box closer, as it is a smaller growing plant, but other hedge plants would also be roughly 2' apart - further apart if you splash out and buy tall (e.g. 6') plants at the get go)

Thuja plicata is reasonably fast growing and good for topiary, but it will only realistically do surface shapes - so contours and the like, but a 3D object, like a Peacock, is not going to be possible - Thuja doesn't make enough sideways growth.

You could look at larger leaf things, like Privet - easy to grow, reliable hedge, if it gets a motorway-width hole in it during some temporary gaming and bike-track-making phase it will grow over later on. But ... its quite a large leaf plant, so getting a nice topiary shape will be a challenge.

The soil is probably dry near your wall, so I would put a "leaky hose" along the row of hedging plants so that you can easily water them to get them established in the Summer, and water them in dry spells during the following 2-3 summers - just hook the hose up to the leaky hose and leave it running for an hour or so. I would do that 3 times a week during dry spells in the first summer, twice a week in not so dry spells, until end of September (longer if we have an amazing dry Indian Summer)

I've skated over some things, so best to let us know what you decide on (or what you need help to choose between) and then folk can chip in with nuggets of advice based on their experience to hopefully save you from making any schoolgirl errors

Dunno if it has anything with the right slant, but I have some Topiary pictures on Pinterest:
http://www.pinterest.com/kgardenpins/topiary/

For something utterly bonkers look out for Pearl Fryar . We are growing a chess set in our front garden ... this is as far as we have got - some imagination required

 

Thank you so much for all that information! That's so helpful.
I actually like the sound of using privet. We probably wouldn't go too outlandish on shapes so it might be ideal.
My son is only 15 months old, but he's already climbing anything he can grab on to, and although he will never be unsupervised, he pops everything in his mouth still so I might avoid anything with berries for now!
I really appreciate your help. I'm off to Pinterest right now to have a nosey. And the chess set sounds amazing! :-D

 

If the purpose of the bushes is to prevent the child climbing up the wall, will the bushes not help the child to climb it? The bushes will surely just serve as footholds?

 

Good choice. Small leaved (so will be OK for topiary) and fairly vigorous growing. Not sure how well it will recover from being attacked with a battering ram, but I suspect pretty much on a par with Privet