Planting a new hedge

ShaunC

I am hoping to plant a hedge around 50 - 60 meters long, but I'm not sure of what to plant. The soil is not too bad but not the best. Was thinking, Laurel, Portuguese laurel or copper beech. Are there many pro's / con's that I should watch out for? Are there big differences in prices of the plants. I don't want to break the bank for a hedge.

SnowyMuckish

Personally I’d go for beech over laurel as it’s more beneficial to wildlife. But that’s just me!

Whatever you do decide buy now soon during bare root season if you want to keep costs down.

ShaunC

I'd prefer the beech myself, but the laurel is quicker to grow and fill out and hardier I'm told. Any thoughts on the Portuguese laurel?

macraignil

The laurel types are evergreen so can look a bit better in winter. The beech hold their dead leaves over winter so they are not completely bare then but not a big fan of the brown colour myself. A mixed hedge row could be better for wildlife and more interesting than just a single species hedge. The Portuguese laurel are a bit less vigorous than the cherry/common laurel so are easier to manage and with smaller leaves can be tidier looking if you want to keep the hedge small. If your ground is a bit damp hornbeam can be a bit more reliable than beech. Posted a few videos here showing how a hornbeam and white thorn hedge has developed since planting.

Happy gardening!

SnowyMuckish

I agree with macraignil, mixed hedges are a good idea. I went for a berry rich native mix and I have been amazed at the amount of birds that it has attracted to our garden.

ShaunC

Thanks for the tips all. I'll have to do some more research so before I part with the cash.

GreeBo

@60m I think I would deffo mix, monotone can be nice for a smaller garden but might just be boring over 60m

Squiggle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058231603/planting-a-new-hedge

If privacy is important to you Beech or Hornbeam won't provide it for you for several months of the year as they are semi deciduous.

Furze99

What's the context? Urban or rural or semi rural? What have the neighbours, if any got?

Personally I think laurel looks out of place and out of context in a rural setting. Some neighbours here have it, like importing a slice of suburbia. We inherited a good hedge/ ditch which has a mix of beech, holly, hawthorn, bramble and yes some laurel. It fits in well.

But if you're urban located, laurel may fit in better.

ShaunC

I'm in the countryside, and I agree a laurel hedge is a bit wrong. I was talking to a landscaper today and he reckons either beech is best. I might fire an odd whitethorn into the mix for variety. Again, thanks for all the advice. I'll keep ye posted on developments.

ClaptonBay

Sorry to hikack.

Does anyone have tips on planting a Laurel hedge..I had a bad attempt just over a week ago thinking I done a decent job, then comes the storms and some of them fell over. Planted about 20 in total for 12m length. Only about 10 days gone and some of them look dead..absolutely hopeless at this stuff. Watched a few online vids but some questions:

1. One guy said don't use the top lair of grass you dig up as it's not good soil..cause of this I miscalculated. I then didn't have even topsoil to fill around the root to bring the trench back to garden level. Can I just fill with a few bags of compost? Or use the topsoil from the top lair? I had stood around the topsoil around the root but ya....

2. Should I have watered them/be watering them at this time of year?

First attempt and not a great one. Any tips/good vids out there I can follow??

horse7

My favourite, Escallonia hedging plants are fast growing and work wonderfully as a windbreak, particularly in coastal areas, as these plants can tolerate harsh weather conditions.

looksee

You were unlucky with the storms just after planting the hedge. What happened with the ones that fell over, did you re-plant them, leave them or just pull them back?

Laurel is fairly tough, it would be surprising if it looked dead after only 10 days, even if they were badly planted. Were they bare root? Did you have them for long before you planted them? Were the roots kept damp before planting?

You apparently dug a deep enough hole for them, even if you ended up a bit short of soil. You can buy bags of soil that would give you the same volume as compost and would be better for the hedge.

Could you post a pic of them so we can get a better idea of what the problem is? They really should not have needed watering in this weather, I have planted a few shrubs and trees recently, the ground is really wet and I have not watered them and they are fine.

ShaunC

Finally got the green beech (the leaves are currently brown) planted, they got a bit of fertiliser (chickenshit) and now we wait.

The landscaper told me he will replace any failures. Hopefully there won't be any.

mickey15ie

Hi

On a similar note I am looking for a suggestion for a tree or hedge to give privacy to both my neighbour and ourselves.

Could anyone suggest something?

macraignil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118808660#Comment_118808660

Darwin's barberry is nice at the moment with bright orange flowers and it also has prickly evergreen leaves that provide good shelter for wildlife and a dense screen for privacy. Not clear from your photo how much of an area you want to screen what size you want your planting to grow to, what level of shade is on the spot you are plating on or lots of other significant factors so I think it is not possible to give an informed suggestion from the information you have provided. This website allows you to search a plant database by entering what your requirements are for the plant.

Happy gardening!

mickey15ie

About 140cm width of space and its south facing gets plenty of sunlight. To grown to 2 - 3 meters would be spot on. Photo on this post is taken just now

looksee

You really don't have a lot of space for very much at all. That area will be a mass of roots and it will be difficult to find space to put something in. What is that growing on the fence? Looks like a wild rose or similar, that could be cut back and trained to fill in more of the fence, and there are other things growing there. It appears you have a patio quite close. Why not come in from the fence and strategically place a couple of large flowering shrubs about a third of the way between the fence and the patio. Something like evergreen choisya with its scented white flowers. Or put in a short run of trellis (heavy duty, not the feeble panels sold in diy stores) and grow roses up it. Or an evergreen clematis or lonicera. If you put in clematis it will need a paving slab or similar over its roots to keep them cool.

sonnybill

I’ve 110m of native hedge, I cut all grass and weeds and pruned them all down to thicken up in year 2, I’ve to do something with weeds as spent all last summer weeding them , have plenty of mulch but was thinking of firing down cardboard or that porous black shelter netting beneath the mulch to smother weeds? Have bale wrap plastic but afraid I’d prevent water getting to the hedge

looksee

Do not use plastic. carboard covered with mulch would be your best solution. That weed membrane is a liability especially round hedges as it just forces ivy/scutch/bindweed to come up immediately round the stem of the bush. Cardboard will do a very good job of keeping weeds down for a good while, eventually you have to put more on as the old stuff rots away, lasts about 12 months usually, just get used to saving card, cut it up into useful size strips as you get it and it will be easy to store and a quick job to put it down when you need it.

ttnov77

Laurel is really the worst option considering the biodiversity crisis we are in. There are much better native or wildlife friendly options like privet or mixed native hedge great even for small gardens.

Here is a good read if anyone want to plant native hedgerows.

https://www.growitbio.com/post/bare-root-planting-irish-native-hedge

wildwillow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120331276#Comment_120331276

Couldn't agree more. It is becoming a blight on the landscape. Farmers locally are using long stretches of it on perimeter fences, instead of native hedging. It is the Leylandii of the future.

looksee

The laurel discussion was 12 months ago.

jackboy

Personally I wouldn’t use anything other than mixed native, everything else looks artificial. See what’s thriving wild in the area. You can take cuttings from these and have a free hedge.

standardg60

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120331276#Comment_120331276

On the contrary laurel is far from the worst option, leaves, flowers and berries are all attractive to wildlife here, while it looks a bit monotone it is part of the Cherry family.

SnowyMuckish

I came across this charity last year. They help people plant native trees.

https://www.hometree.ie/wild-atlantic-rainforest-project

might be worth chatting with them.

ttnov77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120331651#Comment_120331651

It might be part of cherry family but it’s nothing like native wild cherry. The flowers of rhododendron and japanese knotweed (which is actually edible plant) are also source of pollen for pollinators but all 3 plants are considered invasive and do more harm than good as they are outcompeting native flora. The plant as a whole need to be considered in terms of biodiversity support capacity not just the flower.

Also if the laurel hedge is tightly clipped it won’t flower and provide the berries unlike for example hawthorn that will still flower even when pruned.

893bet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118591098#Comment_118591098

What berry rich trees? I planted beech last year and a few failed so would like to mix in a few here and there.

looksee

Hawthorn, Guelder Rose, crab apple, bird cherry, spindle, rowan, holly. In no particular order. Some will make fairly big trees - bird cherry especially.

macraignil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120333523#Comment_120333523

I don't think anybody said that there were not better options than laurel for wildlife like the hawthorn you mention but the point made was that it is not the worst option like you were saying in your previous post. The flowers on the ones in my own garden are about to bloom now and I think these early season flowers are quite important for supporting pollinators as they are in flower earlier than a lot of other plants. I cut them back with loppers rather than motorised hedge trimmers as I think this keeps them looking better than they would with lots of leaves cut in half and this is done after the flowering and still leads to a limited amount of fruits being formed which are edible. I regularly notice birds active in the laurel where I think they appreciate the shelter provided by its dense growth. I have yet to see a cherry laurel sprout up from seed while very regularly finding other varieties of shrub and tree doing so and would question how it qualifies as invasive when it does not seem to spread easily in this way here.

Even what I regard as the worst option for a hedge Leylandii I have read can provide some wildlife benefits by providing shelter for birds nesting.

ttnov77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120334036#Comment_120334036

As I said it depends on management of the hedge. Any large shrub will provide nesting opportunities but its always best to consider native first that will provide more than just nesting opportunities :)

Cherry laurel can spread by root suckers and seeds spread by birds and is considered as invasive in UK and Ireland.

Im not attacking anyone for using this plant, simply sharing my honest opinion, suggestions and facts

http://www.habitas.org.uk/invasive/species.asp?item=3420

893bet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120333644#Comment_120333644

Great thanks. Planted around 200 red and green beech last spring. A few never came to leaf at all and a few came to leaf but died over the summer. Will be nice to replace the failures with something different.

GreeBo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118601064#Comment_118601064

Its an old post, but I wouldnt say its correct that Beech doesnt provide privacy during winter. One of the lovely things about Beech is that it does keep its leaves, albeit in a brown/dead state. But its still a "solid" privacy screen.

macraignil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120334299#Comment_120334299

Thanks for sharing your opinion and information to the discussion and I agree with most of what you have said except for Laurel being the worst option. I think Leyladii and Griselinia are just two regularly used hedge options that would be worse choices than Cherry laurel.

iniscealtra

I’d put in a mic of whitethorn, holly, hazel and spindle as a wildlife hedge. Lots of food for the birds.

Squiggle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120334386#Comment_120334386

Sowing two rows definitely helps alright. I've yet to see a single row of hornbeam or beech that will give the same level of privacy, during the winter months, as will a single row of evergreen hedge. I have hornbeam, grissilinia and photinia and the only one not opaque at the minute is the hornbeam!

looksee

My hornbeam has kept its leaves all winter - dry and brown, but still there. Just beginning to fall now as the new buds come through.