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Flowering currant hedge
normanblade
Posts: 5
I have a 10 metre long flowering currant hedge that has a section under which my house services pass. Despite re-planting three times with similar healthy bushes from elsewhere in my garden the bushes in the affected section die off. The hedge is about 14 years old and has had the problem all that time.
Could the roots be affected by the magnetic field around the electricity cable supplying my house as it passes under the hedge?
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I'd be more suspicious of the quality of the soil, if it's had a deep trench dug through it - could that area have had some clay subsoil brought to the surface?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I created a border in a previous garden and actually hit the outer casing of the electric cables when digging it.
It didn't affect anything growing in the new border or anywhere nearby. I think Dove is nearer the mark Norman - there's more likely to be a soil issue. Is there any sign of waterlogging - leaking pipe perhaps, or something like that? Maybe you could have a little dig down and see if there's anything obvious.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thank you Dove & Fairy - I will dig around later although as my property is a former limestone quarry I'm guessing that there will not be much clay around.
SAFETY ALERT - the dangers of digging near buried cables and pipes have been highlighted by Fairygirl - if in doubt check them out prior to digging deep.
Thank you pansyface - no it wouldn't be either of your suggestions - our quarry was for magnesian limestone which is totally different in composition to your carboniferous limestone - but the point I may not have emphasised enough maybe is that out of a dozen or so original bushes planted in the hedge line it is a single bush in the same place that I have replaced three times.
I would go with soil quality. I assume that as its an old quarry the soil will have been brought in and could well be poor in places.
The house we have moved to recently was built on a brown field site approx. 11 years ago. Most of the 'soil' I am digging is so poor its almost untrue. Where there isn't builders rubbish there is subsoil and clay mixed in. The builders idea of topsoil was adding at most two inches over a lot of the garden then hiding it with turf.
If you order a statue on a plinth you'll have to hope that someday your plinth will come.
Shall I shut up again?
Yes Steve
good joke though ...
Could it be particularly limey bit of ground? Not sure if that affects the flowering currants - are they lime haters? They grow like weeds up here and it's largely neutral to acid soil.
Just a thought
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I would not be too keen digging near cables!
If the rest of the hedge is ok, why not prune in such a way that the flowering currents on either side grow to fill the space.
You could have another go planting for free by sticking in some hardwood cuttings in the space, they root like weeds
Many thanks all for your suggestions (& jokes) - currantly I'm thinking that the prune to fill the space idea from Roger is what I'll go with. On the statue theme I did think about a large sign with the word GAP printed on but then I'm sure some jobsworth would point out a copyright infringement!
Steve, that joke was worthy of Verdun. Get your coat.