Advice Please! Hornbeam or Beech best for my hedge?

I have a 50cm 'border' on the outside of my fence. This land is mone, and to increase the height of my boundary I would like to plant a hedge - I'm not keen on conifers. I've been advised Beech or Hornbeam are good choices. What size plants should I go for? I want an ultimate height of about 8-9 feet, as quickly as possible, but I also want to hedge to look nice, thick and healthy right down to the bottom. Can I mix Beech and Hornbeam? The ground is very hard, quite dry and sandy at the moment, should I dig out a bit and fill with better compost? Should I use a root assisting hormone? Any and all advice would be gratefully received.Advice Please! Hornbeam or Beech best for my hedge?
I have a hawthorn hedge which I planted from 18'; teeny trees. It's lovely! It's 3 years old now, and looking pretty good. Hawthorn will keep sprouting from the base if you keep it cut back, and will give flowers and berries which will be better for wildlife (I would imagine) than beech or hornbeam.





Buying the trees as 1-2yr olds means that they are really cheap too, and very young trees transplant really well and once established (yes, with some nice compost mixed into the soil, and watered regularly) will take off and start growing really quickly.Advice Please! Hornbeam or Beech best for my hedge?
I have seen beautiful hedges of hornbeam. They were on a property that was very well maintained, they lawn was bentgrass for crying out loud! The thing about hornbeam and beech is that they are trees, so the bottoms will eventually thin out as the trees get older. Beech trees do not want to be 8-9 feet tall, they're trees.





I would recommend some other kind of shrub, like the aforementioned privet... or forsythia (nice in winter) or some other shrub that will grow wide and tall... lilacs, witch hazel, but it does depend on your hardiness zone.





I wouldn't fill in the soil with compost completely. Definitely mix compost in with the native soil, this is better for the plant in the long run.
As a gardener, I would settle for Beech., possibly mixed with hawthorn. However, they can prove to be slow growing.





Plant with b
Privet works for me