Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: The Evil Hedge is Going...Anybody have less Invasive ideas?, 1 by dovebydesign

dovebydesign wrote:
well...... we are just getting to the outside lanscaping this year after reno of inside the last 2 years.

We have this hedge we have called the evil hedge, it is nice enough to look at, but it is horrid to mow near, or to trim, because of all the thorns. So I looked it up and it is barberry...purple barberry I think (although some of it is green?). It is the most horrid bush, it grows like mad, I can not keep it trimmed into anything easy to maintain. It is a nice colour but other than that....yuk.

Then I was trying to figure out the backyard hedge which looks more like an overgrown straight line of brush and found it to be a honeysuckle bush. Both of these are on the lists of invasives in this State. So now I had the chinsaw out and was cutting it up last week until it got to be 100+ outside. Does anyone have ideas about what we should replace it with. I lean toward something more natural looking, was thinking of building a trellis like structure for the privacy between the neighbours deck and us and then just planting maybe some shrubs, trees, etc. along the place where the hedge is now in the backyard. Except it needs to be in a stright line and that to me looks so ...formal and I am not formal......how can I get it to look less formal in the backyard?

Attached here is a pic of the front yard hedge.....