Give your hedge the edge
Pick the right plants and these ‘living walls’ can light up your plot
MENTION hedges and most of us think of a closely planted row of deciduous or evergreen shrubs, whose purpose is to mark our property’s boundary. Well, that’s certainly one function, but hedges are not just for defining our territory or providing privacy from nosy neighbours. They can be used to provide shelter, act as a windbreak or to reduce the din from a busy road. Within the garden, hedges are ideal for adding structure to the layout or can be employed to divide your space into a series of ‘rooms’; hedges also make the perfect backdrop for borders or other displays of flowers.
Now is the perfect time to start a hedge. The soil is still warm from summer, and moist, which allows plants to form a mass of roots, despite no sign of life on the branches above ground. As a result, plants will be ready to burst into life in spring.
Box, privet, yew and other evergreens are generally sold as container-grown specimens, although a few are sometimes offered as bare-root plants at a fraction of the cost. A whole host of deciduous hedging shrubs are available to buy as bare roots during their dormant season, from November to March.
Sometimes called whips by nurserymen, bare-root hedging plants are generally twoto three-year-old specimens that are raised in a field and lifted for sale in autumn. Plants on offer are supplied in bundles, and those suitable for hedging range in height from 11in to 4ft, depending on their age.
Expect to find beech, hornbeam, hazel, hawthorn, dogwood, alder, blackthorn and similar plants grown for their foliage, along with flowering shrubs, such as dog rose, ribes, philadelphus and viburnum.
So what type of hedge should you go for? If you have a plot with neat borders and lawns, a tightly clipped formal hedge would be ideal. Among plants to consider are cherry laurel, yew, Portuguese laurel and Lawson’s cypress, a conifer that’s been described as the ‘thinking man’s leylandii’.
Copper beech (Fagus sylvatica Atropurpurea Group) makes a fantastic formal hedge thanks to its purple foliage that turns a rich orange in autumn. It looks great on its own, or try making a so-called tapestry hedge – plant three green beech followed by a copper, repeating this pattern. Informal hedges are allowed to grow more naturally and suit a more relaxed style of garden. Because they are not clipped back hard, the shrubs produce flowers or are clothed with berries. Forsythia, escallonia and weigela are all blessed with attractive blooms, and pyracantha, Japanese rose (Rosa rugosa) and upright forms of cotoneaster have stunning fruit. Snowberry, or symphoricarpus, has marbled-sized white, pink or near-red fruit in autumn. A dense, spiky hedge will help to keep out unwanted animals or human intruders. Holly, pyracantha, roses, sea buckthorn and several types of berberis are all armed with dangerous spines, thorns or prickly leaves.
Prepare the ground well before planting a hedge. Remove weeds and dig over the soil, working in plenty of leafmould, garden compost or well-rotted manure.
If you are planting an internal hedge in a lawn, strip away a 3ft-wide band of grass with a spade. Mark out the course of your hedge with a bricklayer’s line and lay out your plants, 12in to 23in apart, depending on variety. Either make individual planting holes, or dig out a straight-sided trench – 23in wide by 17in deep – piling the soil along the top of its length. Place plants in the ground, making sure whips are planted at the same level as they were growing in the field – a soil mark should be easily visible on the stem.
Replace soil and gently firm into place with your heel. Finish by giving by them a good soaking.