I thought it wouldn't take that long to plant up my new hedge. However I seem to be progressing at glacial speed. Digging chalky rubble is hard work. Hoping that the result will provide the small trees with some soil to root into.
The on-line resources make it sound easy: just dig a trench and then five minutes to plant out.
These bare roots better take!
I'm struggling to find the original soil level on the bare roots. Is there an idiots guide for identifying an invisible mark?
My approach is to pretty much get the soil level above the top root root growth, but sometimes there's sprouting about 10cm above the main mass of roots and I'm never quite sure what to do in that situation.
@nutcutlet, brick clay is a little nutritious, not so sure about the abandoned cars, old radios, asbestos sheeting and other nasties I've found lurking in the undergrowth.
My neighbour tells me there's a Reliant Robin buried in my garden. He put it there so he should know. We've found no trace of that. Plenty of carpets, lumps of tarmac, toys, bikes and, of course, asbestos. Some pluses, huge lumps of flat concrete to build steps and old hand-made bricks, they'd never be dumped now.
Many years ago a Reliant Robin caught fire on the road outside our garden gate (at earlier house, not here). It sort of melted and the only identifiable 'lumps' left after the conflagration were the wheel hubs, rear axle and a bit of the engine . The owner returned with a wheelbarrow from his allotment, put the engine in the barrow, balanced the axle and wheel hubs across the handlebars and scraped up the solidified melted mess with a shovel and put it in our dustbins.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Originally I was going to place laurel behind the post and rail fencing. And then changed my mind regarding plant choice. Which led to problems.
I tried to plant either side of my fencing. With the intention that the fence is gradually subsumed by the hedge. My fence posts are 6ft apart. The problem being that planting near the posts is hard, because you don't want to weaken the fences' stability. I'd have been better off with larger spacing, 9ft would have worked.
Upon reflection, It would have been far easier to have planted the hedge on one side of the fence. If I was starting again, I'd have used cheap wire fencing. And placed the hedge away from it. When the hedge reached a good size, removed the fencing. This would have made it far easier to dig a trench!
I was still planting bare root yesterday. I'm not sure about the viability of the bare root, it's a good week since receiving them.
I ordered the bare roots, thinking they'd take time to arrive, but surprisingly for once they turned up very promptly. Within 2 days. Which meant a lot of ground work hadn't been done. I know it's obvious, but I'd advice you to do your ground work, and then order the bare roots, so you can get them in the ground promptly.
Time and energy, I ordered enough plants for two hedge rows, and because of prep time, and other constraints, it has been a handful doing both. I was put off by paying twice on post and packing.
Time of year, I'd have been better off getting the plants in at least a month ago.
As I say if all the ground work had been done in advance it would have been far easier.
Double staggered rows take more plants. Another obvious point, but do bear that in mind.
Fingers crossed they all take. I'll take photos at the end of the summer, pending on the hedges living! I'll sleep better when I see growth!
Just a quick note to say the hedging is established now.
I better get a photo before leaf drop. The pears went in at about a foot tall which is hard to imagine now.
But...
And my thoughts flip/flop regularly on this. Sometimes I like them, sometimes I wish I hadn't bothered.
Many of the young plants had strange shapes, and I should have probably not bothered with the weird ugly ones.
I have yet to prune the hedge, because I have been waiting for it to all get to about 1.5m and then top the lot. And not quite sure what to do, because it's all over the place. And I started thinking that to heck with it, I should just let it go.
The shape of the wild pear is odd, it's kind of like a candelabra. Some I can see have branched nicely. And I can see they'd make very interesting specimens. It's kind of a shame they are lost to the hedge.
The gate opening area in the hedge has flummoxed me, as the thought of stabbing my eye out on a wild pear isn't that appealing.
In the summer with lots of growth, it's all good. Come winter I lust for evergreen.
Rows of the same thing now really bothers me I've decided. I think I prefer the chaos of difference. I should have just planted 5 different shrubs and a tree.
Posts
Thanks for the pics, quite a gnarly tree, with good blossom to boot.
I thought it wouldn't take that long to plant up my new hedge. However I seem to be progressing at glacial speed. Digging chalky rubble is hard work. Hoping that the result will provide the small trees with some soil to root into.
The on-line resources make it sound easy: just dig a trench and then five minutes to plant out.
These bare roots better take!
I'm struggling to find the original soil level on the bare roots. Is there an idiots guide for identifying an invisible mark?
Cover all the root but not the stem is the best I can do.
I know about digging in rubble. Here it's a brick rubble
In the sticks near Peterborough
My approach is to pretty much get the soil level above the top root root growth, but sometimes there's sprouting about 10cm above the main mass of roots and I'm never quite sure what to do in that situation.
@nutcutlet, brick clay is a little nutritious, not so sure about the abandoned cars, old radios, asbestos sheeting and other nasties I've found lurking in the undergrowth.
My neighbour tells me there's a Reliant Robin buried in my garden. He put it there so he should know.
We've found no trace of that. Plenty of carpets, lumps of tarmac, toys, bikes and, of course, asbestos. Some pluses, huge lumps of flat concrete to build steps and old hand-made bricks, they'd never be dumped now.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Many years ago a Reliant Robin caught fire on the road outside our garden gate (at earlier house, not here). It sort of melted and the only identifiable 'lumps' left after the conflagration were the wheel hubs, rear axle and a bit of the engine . The owner returned with a wheelbarrow from his allotment, put the engine in the barrow, balanced the axle and wheel hubs across the handlebars and scraped up the solidified melted mess with a shovel and put it in our dustbins.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Things I learned:
Originally I was going to place laurel behind the post and rail fencing. And then changed my mind regarding plant choice. Which led to problems.
I tried to plant either side of my fencing. With the intention that the fence is gradually subsumed by the hedge. My fence posts are 6ft apart. The problem being that planting near the posts is hard, because you don't want to weaken the fences' stability. I'd have been better off with larger spacing, 9ft would have worked.
Upon reflection, It would have been far easier to have planted the hedge on one side of the fence. If I was starting again, I'd have used cheap wire fencing. And placed the hedge away from it. When the hedge reached a good size, removed the fencing. This would have made it far easier to dig a trench!
I was still planting bare root yesterday. I'm not sure about the viability of the bare root, it's a good week since receiving them.
I ordered the bare roots, thinking they'd take time to arrive, but surprisingly for once they turned up very promptly. Within 2 days. Which meant a lot of ground work hadn't been done. I know it's obvious, but I'd advice you to do your ground work, and then order the bare roots, so you can get them in the ground promptly.
Time and energy, I ordered enough plants for two hedge rows, and because of prep time, and other constraints, it has been a handful doing both. I was put off by paying twice on post and packing.
Time of year, I'd have been better off getting the plants in at least a month ago.
As I say if all the ground work had been done in advance it would have been far easier.
Double staggered rows take more plants. Another obvious point, but do bear that in mind.
Fingers crossed they all take. I'll take photos at the end of the summer, pending on the hedges living! I'll sleep better when I see growth!
Just a quick note to say the hedging is established now.
I better get a photo before leaf drop. The pears went in at about a foot tall which is hard to imagine now.
But...
And my thoughts flip/flop regularly on this. Sometimes I like them, sometimes I wish I hadn't bothered.
Many of the young plants had strange shapes, and I should have probably not bothered with the weird ugly ones.
I have yet to prune the hedge, because I have been waiting for it to all get to about 1.5m and then top the lot. And not quite sure what to do, because it's all over the place. And I started thinking that to heck with it, I should just let it go.
The shape of the wild pear is odd, it's kind of like a candelabra. Some I can see have branched nicely. And I can see they'd make very interesting specimens. It's kind of a shame they are lost to the hedge.
The gate opening area in the hedge has flummoxed me, as the thought of stabbing my eye out on a wild pear isn't that appealing.
In the summer with lots of growth, it's all good. Come winter I lust for evergreen.
Rows of the same thing now really bothers me I've decided. I think I prefer the chaos of difference. I should have just planted 5 different shrubs and a tree.
We live and learn.
Looking forward to seeing photos
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.