I need to create a boundary between my front garden and the roadside. The ground is currently all laid to gravel and I am creating a new lawn using topsoil.
Ideally I would put up a dry stone wall- in fact I started on it a few years ago- but I don't have the right kind of stone, and I certainly don't have the time or skills to do the full length. But what I think might work well is to lay the start of a wall with two rows of stone, built up a few courses, and then the space between filled in with soil and a hedge planted on top.
This means choosing a hedge plant that will be OK on a few inches of fairly dry soil. I should add that we're coastal, in the NW of Scotland, and of course I would prefer evergreen and something that establishes fairly quickly.
Any suggestions? I've had escallonia before and it seemed good, nice and hardy and I liked the look of it.