advice pls on sourcing and planting mixed native hedge

[Prof_Yaffle]

Hi,

You good people here on WAB gave some very helpful answers to my last question - may I impose again?

Said wildlife garden lost quite a few hedging plants to the dry spring and summer, so we are hoping to do some replanting, ideally to coincide with National Tree Week.

Previously we bought a job lot of hedging plants, but I've got a few self-sown little trees from my own garden - weeds, effectively - and it occurs to me that there must be public sites around London where such trees are encroaching and unwanted. Can anyone suggest somewhere we might go and dig up a few without being locked up?

Also, we want to improve the trees' odds of survival in future. They are in a bit of a suntrap, in very free-draining soil. Is it worth digging in compost and/or water retaining crystals first?

Thanks,
PY

[Adam Cheeseman]

Hi Prof,

You will need to ask permission from the landowner regardless, otherwise you might feel your collar being felt. I would suggest getting in touch with the local county wildlife trust who will be able to advise if and where this is possible. You also try a direct approach to a landowner explaining what it is for. Most people are accomodating so long as you don't take too much.

If you need to buy any, the BTCV do packs of trees fro hedges. Alternatively Prees Heath Trees are an excellent supplier of native trees.

Cheers,

Adam

[Deb London]

Whereabouts in London are you? Which trees do/don't you want?

I'd say always dig in plenty of compost.

PS How did you perform this piece of magic, turning this:

native wildflowers for late summer interest?

into this:

last question

[Prof_Yaffle]

Adam - thanks, I'll try a few of those.

Debs - the garden's in Fulham but I'm in Kingston Vale. I'm trying to stick to native species, but happy to include less common hedging plants eg. birch.

To include a hyperlink in a post, highlight the relevant text, click on the "Insert Link" button from the formatting toolbar above (assuming you have this - ?) then paste the URL into the dialog box.

I suppose my next question is - any good sources of compost without paying garden centre prices??

[Deb London]

I sometimes have access to the sort of small trees that you might be interested in, but not in enough quantity to make the trip worthwhile.

What a shame you missed this, but you could enquire for next year.

You might be interested in this.

Cool!