Another hedge thread

DrPhilG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118928767#Comment_118928767

Looks nice, and the flower/Berry mix hits the spot.

But in another video he said that it would form a good hedge in 3-4 years?

How much did you pay for them? Only thing I could find on his website was €10 which for a single pot would be pretty pricey.

brokenangel

Beech is a favourite for what you are asking for or hornbeem depending on the ground but expensive now

Whitetorn etc I refused to plant around my house after spending a childhood busting football etc on them

DrPhilG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118929101#Comment_118929101

Yeah beech seems to tick a lot of boxes, I can get a 3-4ft bare root plant for €3.50 and plant in October. So even if I do staggered 2 line hedge, that would be 180 plants, so €630.

The website says they grow up to 2ft a year.

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118929334#Comment_118929334

Get loads of chicken poo and throw it around them, I had very poor grow till I fed them

Bogwoppit

Portuguese laurel would tick a lot of your boxes, can be bought in pots easy enough.

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118929334#Comment_118929334

A couple of copper beech mixed in as well is a nice touch

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118929085#Comment_118929085

You're in for a rude awakening if you think you'll have a decent hedge of any kind in less than 3 or 4 years.

macraignil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118929334#Comment_118929334

Beech is not evergreen but does hold its leaves over winter and is a good plant for hedging, but it is known for not liking wet ground. If that is the case as could be with the description earlier in the thread of blue clay being found in the soil you might be better off planting hornbeam as it can tolerate wet soils better than beech. Just to give an idea of the time taken for a hedge to develop I posted some videos of one I planted a few years back of hornbeam and white thorn. I think throwing lots of chicken manure on the new hedge would encourage weeds more than help the hedge plants and the best way to keep the hedge developing well in my opinion is just to reduce the weed competition in the early stages.

Happy gardening!

DrPhilG

I can live a 3-4 year time frame on a proper big thick hedge, just having the whole area flattened and turned into a proper lawn is a good enough start. Even if it's a crappy hedge for a few years it will still provide a decent boundary.

MacDanger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118930271#Comment_118930271

Decent looking hedge. Is there a method with Hawthorn where you bend the sapling over and tie the down or intertwine the leading growth to the base of their neighbouring sapling in order to thicken the base of the hedge?

macraignil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118930730#Comment_118930730

It has thickened up fairly well now alright. What you describe sounds a bit like laying a hedge which I thought was more a process done on more matured hedges where the height of the hedge plants has allowed some gaps to develop. I think there are lots of variations on the process in different localities and probably some techniques that have been now forgotten. The mature hedge on one side of where I live that was planted by the girlfriend's da had some of the young plants tied in various positions using plastic string that has ended up cutting into and damaging the hedge plants in places and taken a bit of effort to cut out where it has started to look unsightly so I'd avoid this method anyway. Some would advocate cutting down the young saplings fairly drastically when planted and this should encourage more bushy growth from lower down on the plants. I could see this on the odd one I had planted that had the top half of the plant cut down by mistake but the problem with this is you loose a lot of height in your hedge plant early on so it may need more work then to control tall growing weeds.

My own plan to try deal with the odd hedge gap that might develop around here is to propagate some of the Ebbing's silverberry which is said to work well in this situation where filling gaps between trees may be required.

Happy gardening!

looksee

Its called laying a hedge, you partially cut the main stem a couple of feet off the ground and lay it sideways all in the same direction so the new shoots grow up and create a stock proof hedge. Its probably a bit overkill for a domestic boundary. If the bushes are kept cut down as they grow you will get a similar enough effect. Laying a hedge is a serious old craft. I doubt the op's desire for a big hedge will allow him to do the necessary pruning so he will probably end up with a rather tall and straggly hedge, the opposite of what he wants.

We put in a short escallonia hedge and my husband flatly refused to have it cut back as it grew, so eventually it had to be dug out again after about 5 years of looking scruffy.

maestroamado

Just to add you said animals yard... it would may be an ides some fencing in the hedge as they aren't really stock proof...

Just thought i would say...

DrPhilG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118931663#Comment_118931663

Yeah I'm planning on leaving the existing boundary fence in place, and planting the fence inside.

maestroamado

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118931807#Comment_118931807

The reason i am saying is i made the mistake and no matter what you do there will be holes in hedge... if you put sheep wire onto the existing fence when the fence rots in about 100 years there be fence in the hedge...

DrPhilG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118931981#Comment_118931981

Yeah sorry I should have clarified, I'm going to put wire onto that fence. We have a miniature JR so I use a fine mesh wire down the fence at the side of the front garden. I'll do the same around the back.

SnowyMuckish

Something that guided me when we started our hedge was this:

https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/crops/forestry/advice/stockproofhedge.establishment.factsheet_2.pdf

My favourite parts of our hedge now is the Guelder rose (not actually a rose) and the dog rose’s beautiful colour, scent and large hips (great for birds don’t plant too much!) and the hazel for its nuts in autumn. All very wildlife friendly as I usually drone on about 😅!

What we found helpful when planting our hedge was we planted it in underlay covered with bark chips and added a short wooden border to separate it from our lawn (not sure if this was entirely necessary but we felt it gave the hedge a good start). The underlay was only a temporary solution for the first 2 years to suppress the worst of the competing weeds, now that it’s established we don’t care what grows under it.

As for pruning, we only paid close attention for the first two years, we pruned in the shape of a triangle or capital A as advices by Teagasc above. Now we just trim to shape in late autumn early winter.

Bare root is definitely the way to go as many before have said. It took us about 3-4 years to get a good established hedge.

We have heavy blue clay here too, hawthorn does seem to thrive here, as does hazel and holly.

You mentioned non toxic plants for live stock? I’d stand clear of yew and Laurel.