Thanks for the advice fairygirl, Well if I do ever see a hedge out front I will update with pics and if you don't here back from me you know things didn't go well 😪... Should have gotten a professional in
@gerardc1986 Considering you planted 120 and the bad start they had I think you have done well, weather this winter has been difficult. If a professional had planted them they would have still needed good after care which you have obviously given them. Maybe you would have got good advice but not always the case. The good ones now need to settle in as said, they need to be growing well before any pruning. Cut a stem and they will produce two new shoots from that point. That is how they fill out for future reference.
As @Fairygirl mentions the advice is to use secateurs this is to stop the leaves looking 'chewed'. However on a large hedge an impossible task. Long term you will need to be aware that they can damage walls if they really get away. Slow at first whilst forming roots then they are off.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
@gerardc1986 Gerard we're in Wexford and had very similar looking sad laurels after planting a few years ago (portuguese not cherry). We lost about 10% which isn't outside the realms of normal cause ours were bare root. It took a while of them looking ropey but we mulched them with bark, watered them for the first summer, threw some blood fish and bone on each spring and followed everyone's advice and now they're grand. So don't lose the faith just yet! You'll lose a few but hopefully not the lot. Good luck.
I don’t think growing them through a plastic sheet and covering the sheet with mulch will be very beneficial to the plants. I would remove that and mulch the plants.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Thanks @GardenerSuze I will take your advice and let them settle through the summer and reassess then. Thanks @ontopofthehill good to hear yours pulled through, a man said to me once that the beauty about gardening is if something doesn't work or look good you can change it, I just envisaged a laurel hedge between the piers as privacy and interest. @Lyn , I know bad homework or rookie mistake but I am now open to the idea of tearing this away and re mulching. The idea was to stop weeds and grass but i never thought it would be counter productive stopping air, light and water.
It's counterproductive to put hefty membrane down and bark on top. Any rainfall will tend to get taken up by the bark before getting through the membrane and down into the soil, so you'd have to pay more attention to hand watering, which is a bit wasteful, and a lot of work. It's useful for something like a very large area which is being planted up with all sorts of shrubs/trees etc, and will have a lot of space in between until they grow and fill out, as it saves a fair bit of maintenance, but not for a hedge
The bark on it's own will gradually break down and benefit the hedging, as well as suppressing weeds and helping to retain moisture. You would just add more at regular intervals to help the soil, or better still - some other organic matter [compost, leaf mould etc] and some bark on top for setting the hedge off nicely. I think your biggest mistake was killing the grass off instead of lifting it, and adding plenty of organic matter. That really won't have helped the establishment of plants, regardless of the condition/drainage of the soil.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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Well if I do ever see a hedge out front I will update with pics and if you don't here back from me you know things didn't go well 😪...
Should have gotten a professional in
If a professional had planted them they would have still needed good after care which you have obviously given them. Maybe you would have got good advice but not always the case.
The good ones now need to settle in as said, they need to be growing well before any pruning. Cut a stem and they will produce two new shoots from that point. That is how they fill out for future reference.
As @Fairygirl mentions the advice is to use secateurs this is to stop the leaves looking 'chewed'. However on a large hedge an impossible task. Long term you will need to be aware that they can damage walls if they really get away. Slow at first whilst forming roots then they are off.
I would remove that and mulch the plants.
Thanks @ontopofthehill good to hear yours pulled through, a man said to me once that the beauty about gardening is if something doesn't work or look good you can change it, I just envisaged a laurel hedge between the piers as privacy and interest.
@Lyn , I know bad homework or rookie mistake but I am now open to the idea of tearing this away and re mulching. The idea was to stop weeds and grass but i never thought it would be counter productive stopping air, light and water.
Thanks all again, great advice.
The bark on it's own will gradually break down and benefit the hedging, as well as suppressing weeds and helping to retain moisture. You would just add more at regular intervals to help the soil, or better still - some other organic matter [compost, leaf mould etc] and some bark on top for setting the hedge off nicely.
I think your biggest mistake was killing the grass off instead of lifting it, and adding plenty of organic matter. That really won't have helped the establishment of plants, regardless of the condition/drainage of the soil.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thanks
I will be back in a few months with an update, thanks again everyone.
Enjoy your weekend
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...