Questions

I live in the country and my boundry between my garden and road is a regular ditch I am not allowed to remove it due to planning restrictions it's ugly and uninteresting any suggestions on what I could plant on the road side to make it more attractive.

Can you advise me what would be a fast growing tree that i could plant in my garden. I am overlooked from the back of the house and there is a 6ft wall which has a main road on the other side. I would like to plant some trees that would make the garden a little more private. Any suggestions would be very welcome. Is there any trees that you are not allowed to plant in a built up area.

I have put off planting a bare root Griselina hedge with the supplier/gardener after reading your newsletter about their soft centres etc after the heavy frost and freezing conditions. He agrees to wait until mid Feb but how do i know that when he does plant it, it will do well over the next few years. Should i wait till March? Its probably the same batch he was going to plant in January no doubt. Is there any evidence to show its a good or bad batch just yet?

I have a massive wall area half painted white with tarmac running along the whole area,in desperate need of ideas.One I had was some coloured acrylic mirrors which I can't source here in Ireland and are very expensive from England,

Could you suggest a few varieties of evergreen shrubs that could offer privacy for my front garden that is fronted by a footpath and road. preferably shrubs with a height of 4 to 5 feet and dense growth. would consider ones also that produce a flush of flowers.also the names of suppliers if you dont mind.

We have a small wooded area with a mixture of large conifers which we are slowly replacing with ash, oak and other deciduous trees. However there is a new large building beside us, (there is a large deep ditch on the outer side of the boundary) and we wish to plant screening along our side of the boundary. It is shaded and dry. Any suggestions for trees/hedging? In the past we have tried beech and lawson which did not die but did not grow either.