Boundary Hedge

Citizenpain

Hi,

I have a 4/5 foot wall boundary around a 1/2 acre site.

I'm Planning on planting a hedge around the site, or the front of the house at least for now.

Thinking alternating 3 purple and 3 green bareroot beech , single row. 33 cm apart, 33 cm out from wall. . ... Might just use green beech at rear wall

Is there anything that can be inter planted with beech to add some colour and variety ? Wild rose, holly, any berries like raspberry ?

Thanks

CP

The Gardener

Citizenpain wrote: »

Hi,

I have a 4/5 foot wall boundary around a 1/2 acre site.

I'm Planning on planting a hedge around the site, or the front of the house at least for now.

Thinking alternating 3 purple and 3 green bareroot beech , single row. 33 cm apart, 33 cm out from wall. . ... Might just use green beech at rear wall

Is there anything that can be inter planted with beech to add some colour and variety ? Wild rose, holly, any berries like raspberry ?

Thanks

CP

I've planted mixed hedges before but for some reason I've always planted Beech hedges on their own, probably because they make a very good formal hedge. However, I was thinking about your question and I think something like Holly interspersed with the Beech would look well at this time of year, contrasting with the brown leaves of the Beech. The important thing is to choose a plant that will grow at much the same rate as Beech, and Holly would be one of those, something that grows too fast could take over in years to come. You are the one who has to look at it everyday so go with what you like, just use something that grows relatively slow like Beech. And before someone tells you not to grow a Beech hedge against a wall, I'm looking out my window at one that was planted beside a wall twenty odd years ago and did very well, just prepare the ground well before planting.

Oldtree

the green beech will grow much quicker than the purple beech so perhaps bigger blocks than 3 might be better as lots of management needed to maintain small blocks of 3. I have a front hedge of green beech with shorter side hedges of purple which also give a lovely contrast.

A north facing wall will always give problems whereas a south facing on not so much.

aaabbbb

Good fences make good neighbours.... or in your case hedges :P

Citizenpain

The Gardener wrote: »

I've planted mixed hedges before but for some reason I've always planted Beech hedges on their own, probably because they make a very good formal hedge. However, I was thinking about your question and I think something like Holly interspersed with the Beech would look well at this time of year, contrasting with the brown leaves of the Beech. The important thing is to choose a plant that will grow at much the same rate as Beech, and Holly would be one of those, something that grows too fast could take over in years to come. You are the one who has to look at it everyday so go with what you like, just use something that grows relatively slow like Beech. And before someone tells you not to grow a Beech hedge against a wall, I'm looking out my window at one that was planted beside a wall twenty odd years ago and did very well, just prepare the ground well before planting.

Called to a garden centre yesterday; wanted to discuss trees and ended up up discussing the hedge - Gentleman there recommended that Beech hedges would look better without anything interplanted - decisions decisions .

Citizenpain

Oldtree wrote: »

the green beech will grow much quicker than the purple beech so perhaps bigger blocks than 3 might be better as lots of management needed to maintain small blocks of 3. I have a front hedge of green beech with shorter side hedges of purple which also give a lovely contrast.

A north facing wall will always give problems whereas a south facing on not so much.

Hmm; both side walls run in a North Westerly direction (60 metres each) so one will get plently sun and the other not so much. (however our neigbours have a fine beech hedge planted against a similar 5 foot wall which seems to be doing fine at about 7 foot ). The rear wall is south west facing so should be ok

Thanks for the tip re maintenance.... i imagine something like the attached(1) took a lot of work care & attention to achieve.

I also like the 2nd one - Is it every second one or is that just the camera angle do you think?

looksee

I'm personally not a great fan of stripey hedges, but that is just a matter of choice. For a formal or fairly formal hedge I would go with just the green.

If you want an informal hedge then I suggest you plant a mixture of shrubs including both colours of beech, but let them grow naturally, with not too much trimming. Alternatively you could grow a beech hedge and keep it trimmed but plant medium sized trees, rowan, birch, holly (grown as a tree) etc and let them stand above the hedge.

This is all very much a matter of personal taste. I do think other shrubs grown with the beech and then kept trimmed would end up just looking a bit untidy.

Oldtree

Citizenpain wrote: »

Hmm; both side walls run in a North Westerly direction (60 metres each) so one will get plently sun and the other not so much. (however our neigbours have a fine beech hedge planted against a similar 5 foot wall which seems to be doing fine at about 7 foot ). The rear wall is south west facing so should be ok

Thanks for the tip re maintenance.... i imagine something like the attached(1) took a lot of work care & attention to achieve.

I also like the 2nd one - Is it every second one or is that just the camera angle do you think?

As you can see in the frist photo the purple bit is thinner than the green, and the green would have to be continuously trimmed back to allow the purple to flourish.

I much prefer either one or the other as a formal hedge, or as in my case green to the front and purple to the side. Also to bare in mind is that the purple is more expensive and slower to grow/thicken up.

A mixed hedge to my mind would be somthing you would let grow wild with either no trimming or trimming once a year as necessary where it has been planned and the plants are able to compete/intermingle with one another unaided, otherwise you are looking at another serious maintainance issue.

dixiefly

Do you need a Beech all the way round? How about a Leylandii at the back. We seriously considered it and actually planted a Leylandii tree that was part grown to see how it wold take. In the end we went with the Beech but it has not been without its problems as we have had a type of whitefly infesting the Beech trees most years. An attempt I made one year to kil the whitefly almost killed some of the trees.
A neighbour planted beech at the front at the same time and it looks very well, needs to be kept trimmed quite often I would say.

Citizenpain

dixiefly wrote: »

Do you need a Beech all the way round? How about a Leylandii at the back. We seriously considered it and actually planted a Leylandii tree that was part grown to see how it wold take. In the end we went with the Beech but it has not been without its problems as we have had a type of whitefly infesting the Beech trees most years. An attempt I made one year to kil the whitefly almost killed some of the trees.
A neighbour planted beech at the front at the same time and it looks very well, needs to be kept trimmed quite often I would say.

Parents had Leylandii . When we were young and they were maintained it was lovely . Then as they got older it was untrimmed for a year or two and ultimately became nothing but trouble -- ended up being a big job to remove them. They got a huge chunk of lawn back when the did though. So I'd prefer anything else really but I know anything can go the same way if let wild.

I think we'll use beech at the front anyway --- it's the only one my wife and I can agree on , and we both like the idea of mixing the purple and green. If it doesn't work out we'll replace the purple!

Might not put a hedge on the rear wall as we will be planting some alder eucalyptus and Pyrus Calleryana for screening. I'm not sure if a hedge is necessary..

I was clearing a "border" today for the hedge - found 8 balls ; from childrens to O' Neills !!

Oldtree

just asking for trouble planting leylandii, more trouble than they are worth.

Citizenpain

Dont worry - it'll be Beech --with some sort of pillar affect with the purple ---- and i might just chance some holly --- very llittle though -- 60 metres of brown hedging in one straigh line needs some brightening in winter.........

The Gardener

Citizenpain wrote: »

Dont worry - it'll be Beech --with some sort of pillar affect with the purple ---- and i might just chance some holly --- very llittle though -- 60 metres of brown hedging in one straigh line needs some brightening in winter.........

The best of luck with it, I think it will look well, more or less what you had in mind at the beginning.

Newgrange Warrior

If you are looking for a good supplier, I can recommend Van Der Wel (http://www.vanderwel.ie/). I planted 200 bareroot beech last March and out of this only 1 died even with the summer we had.

Citizenpain

The Gardener wrote: »

The best of luck with it, I think it will look well, more or less what you had in mind at the beginning.

Thanks --- Now if I can just motivate myself not to just Heel them in and actually go and dig a trench and do it right..........

Best price I've seen is on www.hedging.ie - anyone used them?

Paudi04

Beech or laurel?? I have 3/4 acre site.. Parents had a leylandii hedge and hen its not maintained i found it a nightmare... Is there must difference in price between beech/laurel?

Citizenpain

Not a massive difference really in price, in that you can buy a smaller Laurel and it will grow more quickly. The Purple Beech is more expensive then the green,
You can see the prices on the site i mentioned in my last post.

I just prefer Beech ever so slightly to Laurel.

Oldtree

beech is the more reliable of the two in that it will probably settle in and get going quicker.
You should invest in wind netting to protect the laurel , moreso than the beech.
If winter light is an issue, and it is here in Ireland, then a deciduous hedge will be better.
Laurel is poisionous and special care should be taken in a rural setting as an animal only has to eat somthing like 2% of its bodyweight to be poisioned.
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=1541

Citizenpain

Ok - I've Strimmed back and cleared a meter boundary 140 meters long.

Hopefully the weather will be dry at the weekend and I can spray roundup.

Is there any point/benefit rotovating the boundary before diging the trench?

jezko

Citizenpain wrote: »

Is there anything that can be inter planted with beech to add some colour and variety ? Wild rose, holly, any berries like raspberry ?

Thanks

CP

I would use a Mixture of Shrubs as Mentioned Holly and Shrub Roses.
but also Pyracantha... Masses of white Flowers in Spring and Red/Orange/Yellow Berries (Depending on Cultivar) in Early Winter.

If you wanted a Formal Hedge at the front and a Mixed Informal Hedge along your Side and Rear...
Personally I find formal Hedges a bit " Boring" and unless you keep it tidy every year it can get out of control quite quickly... 1/2 Acre site will be a lot of "work" to be kept all formal ..

paddy147

Hornbeam is a lovely boundary hedge,very hardy and sturdy hedge.

We have it planted in our garden and it looks amazing when in leaf and also in wintertime.

Citizenpain

Just to update.

140 meter trench has been dug. I'm getting in some manure to mix in and have hedges ordered. ( green and copper beech) .

I was marking out where to put the copper beech today and I noticed that about 20meters of the trench is quite wet . It's where the garden is at its lowest.

I was wondering if I would be better off putting hornbeam in this section. Any opinions ? How would it blend in with the beech ? It's slap bang in the middle of a 60 meter straight stretch! I'll put up a pic if I get a chance .

pwurple

How wet is quite wet? Are we talking about puddles of standing water? Hornbeam can take damp poor soil, but not totally waterlogged.

Can you improve the drainage at all?

Viburnum opulus (guider rose) I have put into a mixed hedge, as it can take somewhat wet too, but for completely waterlogged it's only going to be willow (salix).

Citizenpain

pwurple wrote: »

How wet is quite wet? Are we talking about puddles of standing water? Hornbeam can take damp poor soil, but not totally waterlogged.

Can you improve the drainage at all?

Viburnum opulus (guider rose) I have put into a mixed hedge, as it can take somewhat wet too, but for completely waterlogged it's only going to be willow (salix).

There were some small puddles in the trench yesterday .. All gone today though and just a bit muddy . I'm going digging up the rest of the garden over the summer so I might be able to dig a soak pit nearby

paddy147

Citizenpain wrote: »

There were some small puddles in the trench yesterday .. All gone today though and just a bit muddy . I'm going digging up the rest of the garden over the summer so I might be able to dig a soak pit nearby

Add in plenty of grit and mix it in well with the soil and any compost,manure you may be adding..:)

Hornbeam is fantastic...we have it around our house.Very pleased with how it has grown.

pwurple

paddy147 wrote: »

Very pleased with how it has grown.

You crack me up.

pwurple

Citizenpain wrote: »

There were some small puddles in the trench yesterday .. All gone today though and just a bit muddy . I'm going digging up the rest of the garden over the summer so I might be able to dig a soak pit nearby

A gravel trench and soakaway will help, or if you can build the levels up a bit so it isn't in a dip maybe.

paddy147

pwurple wrote: »

You crack me up.

I dont see anything funny in what I posted.


Specific target pruning since planting of bareroots,so that it has grown to a nice consistant shape,height and depth all along the entire hedge length.

Citizenpain

paddy147 wrote: »

I dont see anything funny in what I posted.


Specific target pruning since planting of bareroots,so that it has grown to a nice consistant shape,height and depth all along the entire hedge length.

Paddy- I think pwurple looked at your post when only the 1st pic had loaded
Lovely hedge!

paddy147

Citizenpain wrote: »

Paddy- I think pwurple looked at your post when only the 1st pic had loaded
Lovely hedge!

fair enough so...appoligies to he/she if he/she didnt see the other pic yet..

Thanks.

Oldtree

easy now there paddy big kisses all round