A Thorny Issue

Would you complain if you found a Banksy graffiti on your garden wall – probably not! His graphics are usually politically observant and skilfully drawn. But that said, if they are drawn on property without the owner’s permission, they are still technically acts of ‘vandalism’. In this sense, they are no different to the graffiti ‘tagging’ that seems to crop up in so many places these days. It only takes one person with a can of spray paint after all. This is an issue I am looking at for real. An Art Deco seaside swimming pool pavilion is being refurbished near me and there will be lots of lovely off-white walls when it is finished – guaranteed to get the graffiti-vandals salivating. So, wearing my ‘gardening hat’, I’ve been wondering if plants can help reduce the likelihood of future graffiti?

Graffiti taggers now stay away from the crumbling ninety year old Art Deco walls, but will they come back when the buildings are refurbished and newly painted?

Of course there are technical options that offer some deterrence – flood lighting and CCTV both triggered by motion detectors are the favoured options. But they cost money to buy and install. They have to be positioned on masts or attached to the listed building; they need to be linked to a security / response organisation; the equipment has to be maintained (they can be vandalised too); and using them raises data protection issues for the building owners. So, while lights and cameras will be installed, I’ve been researching alternative ‘passive systems’ for help – namely low, thorny or dense hedging options. My thinking is to keep the would-be taggers away from the vulnerable wall surfaces, without spoiling the Category A listed Art Deco architecture.

Before refurbishment work started, graffiti is visible on a number of walls

Defensive planting does bring its own set of requirements. It needs the right amount of space and suitable microclimate to perform at its best; the planting will need to be maintained; ideally the plant selection should have year-round interest; it should not hide the building; it should benefit as wide a range of biodiversity as possible. The building landscaping proposals have not yet been developed and there are planting opportunities to ‘bookend’ the building as well as a planting a strip approximately 1.5m wide along the south façade – just enough to keep an arm holding a spray-can away from the building wall surface! Here are some plants options being considered.

Rosa rugosa - a commonly occurring plant around our coasts and in areas of heathland – dense and super-spiny

Although apparently only introduced to the UK about 150 / 200 years ago from Asia, Rosa rugosa is a surprisingly common plant in many coastal areas. It is fully hardy and is already used by the Aberdeenshire council as roadside hedging in some locations. It is a very tough plant that grows extremely densely, with fearsome spiny stems. It is also used in clumps on the fairways of my local windswept cliff-top Royal Tarlair Golf Course. Once a ball disappears more than a club’s length into a clump, it is almost certainly lost! Rosa rugosa could be pruned to keep it low enough to show off the Art Deco building but it is deciduous so can look a bit gaunt in winter. Having said that, it still remains an effective barrier. In spring it quickly develops full leaf cover and beautiful pink, red or magenta flowers appear throughout the summer and autumn. These are followed by very large rosehips. Rosehips used to be gathered not so long ago to make syrup that was a source of Vitamin C (apparently, they contain 20 times more vitamin C by weight than citrus fruit) and they are also eaten by wildlife. They are still gathered by wild-food foragers, as are the flower petals, for making aromatic jams and teas and for medicinal purposes. Apart from feeding birds, Rosa rugosa also supports many insects, bees, moths and butterflies. As a barrier to would-be taggers it would make an excellent low maintenance deterrent, leaving the building on view but out of reach!

Sea Buckthorn grows quite widely around our coasts – Photo by Yulia Khlebnikova (Unsplash)

Hippophae rhamnoide or Sea Buckthorn is a very tough, spiny native plant with bright orange berries that cluster tightly around the stiff stems, protected by long, protruding thorns. It is deciduous, but the leaves often stay attached well into winter. The berries are packed with Vitamin C. Anthropologists think that it is likely our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have collected them (discussed by Ray Mears and Gordon Hillman in the series ‘Wild Food’ @raymears_woodlore). They must also have collected quite a few thorny splinters too, trying to reach the prized orange berries set amongst the sharp spines. However, it tends to have a more open woody’ tree-like’ structure making pruning more specific. Where I have seen it growing amongst coastal dunes in Fife, it did create an effective barrier but this required a wide area, where it was left to grow wild. It may be less useful where the width of the bed available for defensive planting is relatively narrow, calling for a more compact densely growing plant, but perhaps it is an option as part of the ‘bookend’ planting.

Hawthorne is a hardy plant forming hedgerows throughout the UK

Crataegus monogyna or Hawthorne as most people know it, is the archetypical hedging plant used up and down the land to enclose fields and create boundary conditions. It grows very densely and can be ‘laid’ to create an impenetrable and attractive barrier, but this does require some skill. It is deciduous. In the springtime it develops beautiful scented flowers which fill the air with their fragrance. The flowers are followed by bright red berries in autumn, enjoyed by birds, that last well into winter. It can be kept low by regular pruning and is tough and long-lived.

Holly with winter red berries – Photo by Alistair Macrobert (Unsplash)

Holly (Ilex) is an evergreen option and I have seen it growing on its own, pruned to create very dense garden hedging and also occurring as a self-seeded intermittent field boundary hedging plant, with beach, hawthorn and other woody shrubs. In winter Holly can have bright red berries adding visual interest. These are eaten by birds, which is one of the reasons holly is so widely spread. It does not have thorns growing from the wooden stems but rather it produces stiff spiny leaves. While these do provide a degree of deterrence, unless the underlying stems and branches have been encouraged to criss-cross, an entry can more easily be forced through. There may also be gaps towards the bottom of each plant to each side of the main stems. To be effective, holly needs to be carefully pruned in the early years to encourage dense growth from ground level upwards.

Gorse in winter

Very common on rough non-arable ground, this is a favourite native plant for many people, along with broom. It has bright yellow flowers from the middle of winter through to summer, that seem to glow even on a dull day, adding colour to the flat winter landscape. I have often seen the flowers sticking out of snow-covered mounds. But probably its unruly form suits wild locations best and it is beloved of rabbits, hares, birds and insects. It does not have leaves – only spines which it freely sheds as they turn brown - so perhaps not so good near a swimming pool and lots of bare feet! Sadly, it does not die well (thinking specifically terms of maintained gardens), with the fallen needles forming thick layers over time that burn very easily and fiercely, so I am ruling this out in my search for appropriate defensive hedging to protect the building.

Pyrancantha bright orange berries appear in autumn and last through winter – Photo by Simonetta Sambiase (Unsplash)

Pyracantha, also known as ‘Firethorn’ due to its long woody thorns, is commonly used to create more secure edge conditions in private and municipal gardens or grown against walls reduce accessibility. As well as year-round foliage, in spring and summer it has creamy white flowers followed by berries which can range from yellows through oranges to reds, depending on the variety planted. The flowers and berries provide food for birds and insects while the density of the plant is also good for biodiversity. It is a fully hardy evergreen plant, found in most garden centres. While it will grow tall if left unchecked, it can be pruned to form a lowish dense impenetrable hedge, so is a planting option worth considering.

More blogs to follow on the thorny issue defensive planting - readers’ suggestions welcome.

The above Text and all Photographs (except where noted) are copyright of Wincenty (Wicek) Sosna. Please contact SeeHow for permission to reproduce in any way, in part or as the complete text.