Hi Guys, Hijaking the feed here! I'm also in the need of a new hedge! and I'm considering all your good advice but how do you trim a mixed hedge? as surely it will all grow at different rates?
Am loving the idea of a mixed hedge, just have to talk it through with the wife, and as you say interplanted with other species would look good and provide year round interest
You could have green beech, purple beech, hornbeam, Acer campestre (field maple), Euonymus elatus, forsythia, flowering currant, alder, photinia red robin, escallonia, honey suckle
Carol13. The hedges might grow at different rates, but they get one cut a year to bring them in line with big hedge trimmers. The beech(ish) hedge gets done early August. The hawthorn(ish) hedge gets done some time on a sunny day between now and end of February. If you want a hedge that looks neatly manicured all year round, you could use privet, but it will need several cuts during summer to keep it tidy.
Cut the hedge to size and or shape you want, perhaps leaving the odd one to grow into a small tree/shrub above the others? Don't forget not to leave this too late in the spring lest you upset the nesting birds. Feb. is good.
Out of step with many here, whatever you do NEVER plant a hedge with thorny or prickly plants in it (unless you wish to keep out/in animals (human as well)). I have just cut our 100 feet long hawthorn/Blackthorn/Briar rose hedge and it is PAINFUL.
Next year I will cough up and pay the Road Hedge trimming tractor man to do it for me, even if it is at the wrong tiime of year for the birds. Might ask him to reduce the height by 2 feet as well so I can reach it withgout a ladder.
Pa used to give the hedges a good short back and sides just before Bonfire Night - I suppose it 's a bit late to suggest that now .... I'll get my coat ...........................
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Posts
Hi Guys, Hijaking the feed here! I'm also in the need of a new hedge! and I'm considering all your good advice but how do you trim a mixed hedge? as surely it will all grow at different rates?
Am loving the idea of a mixed hedge, just have to talk it through with the wife, and as you say interplanted with other species would look good and provide year round interest
You could have green beech, purple beech, hornbeam, Acer campestre (field maple), Euonymus elatus, forsythia, flowering currant, alder, photinia red robin, escallonia, honey suckle
Carol13. The hedges might grow at different rates, but they get one cut a year to bring them in line with big hedge trimmers. The beech(ish) hedge gets done early August. The hawthorn(ish) hedge gets done some time on a sunny day between now and end of February. If you want a hedge that looks neatly manicured all year round, you could use privet, but it will need several cuts during summer to keep it tidy.
Cut the hedge to size and or shape you want, perhaps leaving the odd one to grow into a small tree/shrub above the others? Don't forget not to leave this too late in the spring lest you upset the nesting birds. Feb. is good.
Out of step with many here, whatever you do NEVER plant a hedge with thorny or prickly plants in it (unless you wish to keep out/in animals (human as well)). I have just cut our 100 feet long hawthorn/Blackthorn/Briar rose hedge and it is PAINFUL.
Next year I will cough up and pay the Road Hedge trimming tractor man to do it for me, even if it is at the wrong tiime of year for the birds. Might ask him to reduce the height by 2 feet as well so I can reach it withgout a ladder.
These are what you need for working on prickly hedges
http://www.stantonhope.com/Workwear_013950_Welders_Gauntlets_.asp.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
What do you think I wear already?
It is as much about disposing of the trimmings as anything else.
Oh .... got you
Pa used to give the hedges a good short back and sides just before Bonfire Night - I suppose it 's a bit late to suggest that now .... I'll get my coat ...........................
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Nearest bonfire to us was about 3 miles away. One thing I forgot to design into the garden was somewhere to have a bonfire. Stupid of me really.
But the point is good. It is part of hedge planting which is not normally considered, that of where and how one disposes of the bits one cuts off.