Hello

Just bought a 2.5 acre property in melbourne. I want to plant a hedge or screen across the northern boundary of the property (~80 - 100 metres long I would guess). Trying to find ideas of what sort of plant to plant. Anyone got any ideas?

What I want: Privacy, I don't want to be able to see next door neighbours and I don't want them to see me.. there is little-no wind so that is not an issue... Something that is evergreen, fast growing and preferably looks pretty, maybe 5-8 metres tall end height

Initially I was thinking of conifers, specifically leightons green or castlewellan gold but through extensive reading on the net this seems like a potential disaster as they sound like they keep on growing forever... I want a screen 5-8 metres high, not 10m +

I haven't decided on informal/semi formal/formal hedge... I love english gardens with formal hedges but I think maintaining a hedge that long and high might turn into a nightmare if it is formal

There are plenty of Australian natives which would suit. The lillypillies would have something suitable I'm sure-your soil type will have an impact on your choice as well.

I suggest going to a local nursery or two in the area and talking to them-they should be able to give you a list of plants which will do well in your area.

We are on an acre in SW Vic and our boudary plantings are a mix-the yard around the house will have a boundary planting consisting of callistemons, lillypillies and pittosporums; whereas the orchard area will have a variety of gums and agonis.

Hi purifier, we have a similar problem. We have an acre which slopes downhill at the back towards a busy-ish road. Our neighbour planted leighton green around the entire boundary of thir property. There are many things that I don't like about them, they go all dry and dead on the inside which makes them a fire hazard, they can quickly look awful if a patch on one of them starts to die, as you just get to see the dead innards, they leech all of the water from the soil (so we'll be fighting a losing battle to keep our gardens adjacent to their conifers alive) and the leaves that they drop turn the soil acidic, making it diificult for anything else to grow, and last but not least, they love to destroy your concreting, i.e. our driveway.

I wish they weren't so horrible, as they do grow so quickly and I'd love two or three down the bottom of our backyard for some quick privacy.

We're in southhwest Sydney, we get hot summers and cold winters. . . Viburnum, callistemon and photinia all seem to do well in our clay soils. We have acmena smithii and waterhousia floribunda but they just need so much water. Low maintenance is good!

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago! Wish we'd planted more, sooner.

My sister planted Red Robbins on her acreage, along the boundary fences. They are great for privacy. She is in northern NSW.

Hi Vaal. . . Red robins are a variety of photinia. They grow quickly buy need to be trimmed often to keep them neat, otherwise they grow into small trees.

We are having very similar to Deemaree- lillypillys, callistemons, melaleucas, photinia (red robin) pittosporums. 'we're also having some white and lavender flowering Dombeya to screen our water tank from view. They are fast growing, and have large, very attractive flowers. The flowers are scented like a vanilla cake baking...and set my hay fever off, but worth it. Native to Sth America. You can trim them back forever and they will spring up again. Our's has reached 15ft in 2 years, that's maximum height.
Here's a pic of it over our chook house, it's after flowering, hope you can see how large the blooms were. (Flowers turn brown and eventually drop off, still quite attractive I think. Pity I didn't take it before!!)
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For some reason my latest pics aren't very large despite importing them without changing size. Not sure why they are coming out small. Any suggestions???

Another small tree that is a good windbreak is the platypus gum. It has very dense bushy foliage, and a regular rounded growing shape, grows from 5-7 metres in height. It has cream/yellow flowers in spring, grows in heavy soils as well as coastal soils so quite adaptable. Native to WA.

Upload your images to an image sharing website and link the image to your post.

Somehow image was uploading as thumbnail. Didn't remember altering settings tho!!
Here's the dombeya pic again. As I said, I think still attractive even with spent brown flowers. Gives you an idea how large the flowers were...

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