Poorly Beech Hedge

jordan.dunn01 · June 2020

Hi,

I have a beech hedge around my front garden which is 3 years old and generally starting to establish with the exception of a 5m section at the side of my house. The section of hedge is 2 years old (the first hedge in the location died after 1 year) and has struggled to establish.

The hedge was watered weekly during its first year although last summer we went on holiday during a dry spell and returned to find that the leaves had turned brown although they re-grew during the late summer. The hedge survived the winter although was impacted by the high winds we experienced during the middle of last month followed by a dry spell and the leaves have now curled on a lot of the plants in this section with very small leaves.

This is a very dry area of the garden and it seems that after 2 years this 5m section has not been established and is still very susceptible to any environmental stress and based on my experience in other parts of my garden is probably sitting in very poor soil.

I am considering replacing this section of hedge and starting again although would like to ask whether these plants are likely to be retrievable

Any advice you can provide would be gratefully appreciated.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/9m/ctefgpd5lpc1.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/g5/xj0twl0qgdan.jpg

Fairygirl · June 2020

If you clear a bigger section of that grass away, and add a decent bit of organic matter, it will help. Lots of water. That's a canful for each plant until they start improving.
They're densely planted, so they need a lot. Another mulch - bark or good compost ] will also help them retain moisture, especially if dry weather continues.
I think if you'd watered properly when they were first planted, they would have been ok -once a week isn't enough, unless they were bare roots planted in autumn or so.
People really underestimate how much water new hedges need when planted, especially if the conditions aren't perfect - above or below ground.

If you take a foot or so off them too, that will help, and will encourage them to bush out a bit too

jordan.dunn01 · June 2020

Thanks for the response.

Would trimming them now help or would that just add to the problem and I should wait until the end of August and focus on mulching, watering and increasing the width of the bed.

Fairygirl · June 2020

Trimming now would help. The more top growth there is, the harder it is for a plant to sustain while trying to establish and build a good root system.

Poorly Beech Hedge

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