If yo like an Informal Hedge that will provide berries and fruits from which you can make jams or refreshing beveriges, plant nursery Vrt-Express recomends following shrubs, which can be grown here in Istria, Croatia and in other areas as well:
Such a hedge goes in relaxed, rustic style of gardens, and it is much easier to maintain, needing just one trim per year , usually in a late Summer. Do not prune this hedge during a season to allow development of flower buds and in the end fruits, wich you will harvest in the Autum.
For people who likes to provide shelter to birds and wildlife such informal hedge is a right choice.
Plants needed for planting this informal hedge varies and here are some that can bee used:
Rosa rugosa or Rosa canina, it is a rose that today growes freely in the Mediteranean area, and is well known for its fruits, that are used to make jams or herbal tea. (see foto N01.) It is a shrub, forms dense thickets 1-2 m tall, with thorns 3-10 mm long.
Hawthorn, Crategus monogyna, is a small shrub, sometimes grows also as a tree, very dense. Bears sharp thorns of 1-2 cm, and gives very usefull fruits, berries.
Those berries are used to make jams, syrups, to add flavour to a brandy (schnaps). Main use today of hawthorn is in medicinal use, known in a traditional herbalisam for many centuries, for treating cardiac insufficiency.
Ziziphus jujuba, Jube is native, mostly to warmtemperate areas of the northen hemisphere. Likes sunny position and alkaline soil. It is a shrub, 3-4 m, with sharp thorns 1-2 cm. According to one legend, Jube was the bush from which Christ’s crown of thorns was woven. The fruit can be eaten fresh, used in a brandy or in making many sticky confections.
Hazelnut, Corylus avellana, can be grown also as a shrub and it is known that has been used as a hedge plant in Roman time..There is no need to say anything else about this plant, except that its fruit, nut, is been used all over the world.
Elder, Sambucus nigra, is a shrub or a small tree and it is deciduouds. The flower is been used to make very refreshing drink and also as a commercial drink sold as an elderflower cordial.
Depending of the position of your garden, or aviability of these plants in your local plant nursery, you can add to this informal hedge also Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), Dogwood (Cornus mas ) or Chaenomeles.