Beech hedge

Hi All,

I have recently planted 30 Beech (Fagus Sylvatica) as hedging along my boundary fence with a busy road. The plants were bare root 3 year olds and (all but one) have survived and appear to be thriving.

My questions are:

1. Is it a good idea/desirable to plant anything faster growing between the beech trees to 'plug the gaps' or does this just create a nutrition battle?

2. When and how should I prune the trees to encourage them to 'bush out'? They are not yet at the desired height. Should I leave them until they reach the desired height or keep cutting back sooner?

Any help most welcome!

Cheers,

Phil

 

Hi Phil/Would be gardener and welcome to Gardeners Corner

When we moved to our present home we also planted a line of Beech seedlings the same as you along the fence border between ours and next doors house.

What we have found over the last fourteen years that it is best not to plant anything else inbetween the plants unless your border is quiet wide then you can double up the amount of beech saplings but as yours are now growing well you might be better of to just have the single row.

Over the years we left ours to grow to a good height and any pruning that was done is always done in August.Now that ours have grown and thickened up Mr Kandy has now cut the tops to the height he wants by using a line along the top of the hedge then tied to a couple of canes one each end and pushing the canes into the ground and then he uses shears to cut along the line so that he can keep the whole hedge at the same height.

We have found now that we have cut the hedge back to the desired height of 6ft and kept the hedge well watered in the summer months we haven't lost the leaves and have had the lovely copper colour through the winter.

When the hedge was quiet tall (over 8ft) we would lose the leaves each Autumn as if the hedge was trying to conserve as much water as it could hence the shedding of the leaves.

Other members may be along soon to advise on what to do but this way has worked for us

 

Thanks so much for your detailed and speedy reply. I guess I'm just a bit impatient for some kind of privacy but I do know that Beech is quite slow growing so I need to get used to waiting. I think you're right though about not disturbing them while they're doing so well.

When you prune the trees in August, how much do you tend to take off (or did you when they were younger trees)?

 

Hi Would Be Gardener,Yes I am afraid that like all things to do with gardening it does take time to get the effect you want because you will find that for the first few years your beech hedge will be building up a good root system so you won't see much going on up top but as time goes on your hedge will gradually thicken up.

Mr Kandy would use secateurs to cut off around six inches of growth but he didn't start doing this until they had grown above our picket fence.I have just asked him and he said if we had cut off more growth then the hedge would have thickened up lower down sooner but we let ours get a good height first.

This is the first time we have grown a beech hedge and it is nice to see the new green leaves push the old dead copper leaves out of the way and then the reverse happens in the Autumn as the copper colour comes through.

All this with your hedge will depend on how much sun the hedge gets throughout the year and also what type of soil you have and what nutrition the roots get.In the spring I often throw some chicken pellets at the base of the hedge and then I often chuck my washing up water at the base which gives them much needed watering when the weather is dry and windy.

 

Hi all

Thanks for the replies. I tried to plant my trees 3 per metre, but this was not always possible due to obstructions in the ground. Anyway, here is a photo of how they are progressing. The one tree I had given up on has even shown signs of springing to life!

Re fertiliser, I just mixed some blood and bone in when planting and I have since dropped a bit of chicken fertiliser pellets around the base of each plant. I've been keeping them well watered while it was dry, but now Mother Nature is helping me with that in abundance!

Thanks again!

Phil

 

Hi Phil

How tall do you want them ? as I have mentioned on here before you need to check with the local council as most only allow 1 meter at the most especially front gardens as it may restrict view from cars etc , worth checking ...

 

Thanks Spruce

Ideally 2 metres. I can't see it being a problem as all the other houses have a similar height hedge and across the road have massive fences, but thanks for the advice - I will look into it.