I'm looking for suggestions for a plant to use as a hedging around a rear garden, with 2M fencing all around.
I don't want anything too thick/deep etc, but just enough to use as a screen. Would need it to be fast growing, or cheap
I suggest the escallonia, it's fast growing after the first year and it grows very well from slips. Get the variety with the pink flowers in summer. It can get thick over the years but with annual clipping you can keep it trimmed. The best time to set it is around October so if you have some nice neighbours that have it ......
Bamboo would make a thin screen about 2-3 metres high if you dig the planting trench and line the sides with strong plastic to a depth of about 30cm so as to stop the bamboo spreading outwards.
Otherwise, a native hedge like hornbeam will happily be clipped into a fairly narrow hedge. It is relatively fast growing at about 2ft per year.