New Laurel Hedge looks to be in Trouble

Dummy

Hi there,

We planted a laurel hedge about 18 months ago. It does appear to be struggling, and has not grown very much. Now in Mgay, I see that leaves are dying away.

So what type of environment surrounds us? We overlook the Atlantic, so there is a lot of salt sea air and a lot of wind. White hawthorn hedging we have elsewhere in the garden is thriving, Rosa Rogosa is also thriving.

I have attached some images that I have just taken. Does anyone have any advice as to what I could do with these please.


Rgds,

D

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Sedum and Sage

Dummy wrote: »

Hi there,

We planted a laurel hedge about 18 months ago. It does appear to be struggling, and has not grown very much. Now in Mgay, I see that leaves are dying away.

So what type of environment surrounds us? We overlook the Atlantic, so there is a lot of salt sea air and a lot of wind. White hawthorn hedging we have elsewhere in the garden is thriving, Rosa Rogosa is also thriving.

I have attached some images that I have just taken. Does anyone have any advice as to what I could do with these please.


Rgds,

I think you have probably answered your own question. Laurel can't cope with salty wind, in your photos you can see that some of the lower leaves that are protected by the grass look healthy, and the higher leaves that are in the wind are burnt. Unfortunately Laurel was the wrong choice for hedging, it would be better to stick with the plants that thrive, they will look better and be better for wildlife in the long run. You could try mixing a bit of holly in with the hawthorn, it's evergreen and a lot tougher than laurel.

slowburner

More than likely salt/wind burn for sure. One other possibility is dog pee.

Dummy

Thank you both very much for your responses.

We had planted the white hawthorne along the border of the garden as we knew the cattle in the neighbouring field would not eat this. But I think your advice is good - the hawthorne is thriving, even though it is more exposed to the winds off the sea. So I will replace the laurel with hawthorne.

BTW - the reason the grass is quite long around the laurel hedge is that we have a hare living in that grass. We wanted to leave it undisturbed as it was doing no harm and the kids were enjoying watching him / her.

Thank you again.

D.

slowburner

What a great thing to have in your garden.