Box of delights
The common box is a tough fighter – and it knows how to draw the line. David Overend reports.
Buxus sempervirens may not be the biggest shrub in the business, but it’s a tough little cookie and it can battle it out with the best when the weather’s at its worst. It also makes a smashing, tightly-packed evergreen hedge. Which is why more and more and more people are planting it. It won’t make a massive, impenetrable barrier, but it will form a hardy, attractive edge to a bed or border and draw a distinctive demarcation line.
It loves the sun but it’s also one of the relatively few plants that is content in shade, in dryish or dampish ground, and never looks to be in a hurry to try to take over. In all, it’s extremely accommodating, attractive and – if you shop around or are willing to grow your own – relatively cheap.
All of the above are good reasons to grow it but preparation is all important. Dig the ground well, taking out weeds, stones and roots and preparing a decent trench, which should then be packed with well-rotted compost. Then, if possible, cover it with a weed-suppressing membrane.
For a Buxus hedge to be effective, individual plants need to be packed together. So, every nine inches, cut a cross in the membrane and then pop the roots through into the compost-filled trench below. Press down firmly and move on to the next plant in the line.
When all are in their new home, water them well, stand back to admire your work and then have a cup of tea and the compulsory digestive biscuit.
The ‘hedge’ can be left to get on with establishing itself, each plant burying its roots into the nutritious soul. Come May or perhaps even June, you can give them a very gentle, tidying trim or simply leave them to continue growing.
They shouldn’t need watering again (that membrane keeps the moisture where it’s needed – in the soil where the plants can get to it) and they shouldn’t need trimming again until the end of the year.
Box isn’t the fastest-growing plant, but, hopefully, in a couple of years a hedge planted this month will be at least a formidable 18ins tall. Some gardeners are satisfied with that; others will allow the plants to grow tall and even cut them into fancy shapes.