Choosing Your Hedging Plantssubmitted on 30 April 2015
You may decide to plant a hedge in your garden at some point. Perhaps you have moved into a new house where the garden is a blank canvas, or maybe just fancy a change in your established garden. Here are a few points to consider.
Hedges are usually planted to define property boundaries, to give shelter from prevailing winds, to cover a wooden fence or to provide privacy. Some are formal, such as clipped Buxus (box), Taxus (yew) and Fagus (beech) while others are informal with colourful foliage or flowers, like Viburnum or Crataegus (hawthorn). Conifers are frequently chosen, though fast-growing Leyland cypress needs to be kept under control to avoid upsetting the neighbours. If allowed to grow too tall they will shade your neighbours' garden.
Before you start you must decide what you want your hedge to do in your garden, and then if you want a formal or informal hedge, and if you want it to be deciduous or evergreen.
Evergreens make fine hedges and give you shelter or privacy all year round, but they do tend to take more maintenance and need to be pruned annually, ideally twice a year. Conifers are popular evergreen choices, but must be pruned regularly as neglected or overgrown conifer hedges cannot be restored.
Deciduous plants also make fine hedges, though they won't give the same level of privacy as an evergreen hedge. Personally I find them more attractive, and a good mixed hedge is a thing of beauty. Native informal or semi-formal hedges will help attract wildlife, providing shelter and food. Deciduous plants are more forgiving with pruning, and although they should be trimmed in late summer, if you miss a year or two they will respond well to renovation.
How high to do want your hedge, and how long are you prepared to wait. Some plants will provide a hedge relatively quickly while slow-growing plants will give you a lovely hedge if you are prepared to wait.
Have a look at the hedges that are growing locally to see which plants are happy with the local conditions. If you live on the coast, for example, not all plants will tolerate salty winds.
Consider the amount of annual maintenance it will need once established. The timing and frequency of pruning depends on the species and the general effect required.
I have three hedges in my garden, all of which cover wooden fencing. The Leylandi hedge was mature before I moved in, and requires about three feet taking off every year. I planted a laurel hedge several years ago and this quickly grew to cover the fence. This probably has one good trim a year with the occasional bit of light pruning. The third hedge was planted a couple of years ago, and was an attempt at making a wildlife-friendly one, adding hawthorn, blackthorn, guelder rose to the existing shrubs. This is going to need a few more years to develop, and will probably need some extra plants adding.
Whichever type of hedge you decide on, the ideal planting time for most evergreen and deciduous plants is from late autumn to late winter, though box, privet and yew can be planted from early autumn.
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