Thinking of Planting a Hedge?

Planting a hedge can be a very good idea but as is usual, it depends.

The Positives of Planting a Hedge

It can give you and others many benefits but living things need looking after, just ask your partner. A hedge takes money to set up, time to establish and regular cutting to keep it looking right. Coincidentally that sounds a lot like falling in love with someone that has short hair.

Hedge benefits include:¹²

• Privacy and screening
• Shelter from wind
• Wildlife value e.g. bird nesting sites
• Softer, greener boundaries
• Noise and dust reduction
• Seasonal interest
• Extra security if thorny
• Long-lasting boundary option
• Fruit harvest e.g. nuts and berries
• Some support garden pollination insects.

It is not usually a place to gamble i.e. where you go to hedge your bets or a place to be indecisive i.e. to beat around the bush but you could if you wanted.

What are the drawbacks of planting a hedge?

Commitment is the usual short answer to that. Once it is in, it becomes part of your regular garden workload. Young hedges need watering in dry spells, weed control around the base and pruning early on to help them thicken up properly. If you have a deer or rabbit problem, they may also need protecting.^1371011

Young hedges do not give instant results and can look thin, patchy and a bit underwhelming at first. Plant losses are more likely while plants are establishing, so you may have to replace a few. In exposed spots, wind can slow growth.⁷¹²

Established hedges still need trimming to keep the desired size and getting rid of the clippings can be a job and half.³

Cut a conifer hedge back too hard and you can ruin its shape for good, as many conifers will not regrow from old brown wood. Heavy cutting can leave bare patches, brown dead sections and gaps that may never fill back in. The best way to manage a conifer hedge is with light, regular trimming, keeping some green growth on all sides and never letting it get so overgrown that it needs drastic cutting.⁴⁵

How much does a hedge cost to plant?

A tough question to answer and if you are going to hedge us in to answer then £1 to £500+ per plant. Below are the cheapest to most expensive options.

Bare Root Hedge Plants

We can say that of all the hedging options, the cheapest route is smaller 1+ year bare-root plants planted in season which is November to March. These can sit at 30% or more cheaper than other options.

Bare root plants have no soil around the roots, they are literally pulled from the ground. As the plants are dormant, they do not require water and nutrients from the soil so can be sent as literal “bare roots”. As they are so cheap to produce and mail out, the cost savings are passed onto the customer.¹⁶

The average failure rate for bare root is higher than rootball and hedge plants with an industry accepted failure rate of 10%. One way round this is buy 10% more, put them in pots and keep hold of them until the hedge is established and that can take 2-3 years.

Arguably a 1 year potted hedge plant is better than a bare root plant because none of the fine feeding hairs have been ripped off but practically there is little long term difference.

Rootball Hedge Plants

Another seasonal only hedge plant available from November to March although some suppliers will push it out until April.

A rootball hedge plant is a field-grown hedge plant that is lifted with its roots wrapped in a ball of soil, usually held together with hessian or similar material, helping protect the root system during transplanting.⁶

Ideally, the entire root system would be dug up but that would be cost prohibitive so some root i.e. fine feeding hairs are left behind.

Compared to bare root plants of the same age and species, rootball hedge plants have a lower failure rate.

Potted Hedge Plants

These are available all year round and can be planted all year too. As the root system has not been disturbed, they have the lowest failure rate compared to the previous two options.⁷

Cell Grown

Cell-grown hedge plants are similar to potted plants in that they are grown in a contained growing medium, but instead of a larger pot they are raised in small individual cells or modules. Seeds are sown into trays filled with compost or other growing medium, and the young plants are usually sold as plugs with the rootball and growing medium intact. Because the roots are disturbed less than with bare-root plants, cell-grown plants can establish well and may have lower losses in some situations, but success still depends heavily on species, handling, site conditions and aftercare.¹³¹⁴

Additional Hedge Costs

You might be able to just stick in the ground and forget, especially some of the more vigorous plants like Leylandii and Western Red Cedar but most others need a bit of looking after.

Weeds

While your hedge is getting established, a weed suppressant fabric or mulch will help. You might think that a few dandelions brighten the place up but left unchecked, weeds can kill off your entire hedge.⁷⁸

They do it by:

• Stealing water from the root zone
• Taking nutrients before the hedge can use them
• Blocking light if they grow over or around small plants
• Reducing airflow, which can encourage damp and disease
• Crowding the base, so the hedge establishes more slowly

Once the hedge is established at around the 3 year stage, the hedge plants have sent their roots out far enough to out compete the weeds. The weeds will still have a detrimental effect i.e. reduce growth rate but they are not life threatening.

Soil Improver

Most gardens have enough topsoil to support a hedge plant which loosely speaking with zero scientific evidence is around 30+cm deep.⁹

Soils that will need improving i.e. need additional organic matter are:

• Very sandy soils that dry out fast and hold few nutrients
• Heavy clay soils that are compacted, wet in winter and hard in summer
• Waterlogged or poorly drained soils
• Chalky soils that are shallow, stony and free-draining
• Thin, light-coloured soils low in organic matter that set hard when wet or dry

Animal Protection

You likely will not need any but some areas have animal issues. By animal we mean deer, rabbit etc, not the Muppets character although based on previous performance we would advise keeping an eye on him.

These often come in several different forms and are listed cheapest to most expensive.

• Spiral guards
• Chicken wire protection
• Rabbit guards
• Temporary mesh guards
• Tree shelters / tubes
• Deer guards
• Stock fencing
• Deer fencing

The cheapest protect the individual plant. The most expensive options are stock and deer fencing.¹⁰¹¹

Single or Double Row Hedge Planting

Single row planting uses one straight line of plants and double row planting uses two staggered lines.¹

Choose a single line hedge when space is tighter, cost matters, and the species is bushy or vigorous enough to fill out well and knit together. Choose a double staggered line when you want a thicker, denser hedge faster, especially for better screening, a stronger wildlife hedge or a more traditional stock-style boundary. In simple terms, single line is the leaner option, double line is the fuller option.¹²

Hedge plants good for single row planting are:

• Leylandii (× Cuprocyparis leylandii)
• Cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus)
• Portugal laurel (Prunus lusitanica)
• Yew (Taxus baccata)
• Privet (Ligustrum ovalifolium / Ligustrum vulgare)
• Beech (Fagus sylvatica)
• Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)
• Holly (Ilex aquifolium)

Choosing Which Type of Hedge Plant

The species you choose can make a big difference to cost. Fast-growing, widely produced hedges such as Leylandii, privet and western red cedar are usually among the cheaper options, especially in smaller sizes, because growers can raise them quickly and in large numbers. Beech, hornbeam and laurel often sit somewhere in the middle, while slower-growing or more specialist hedges such as yew, holly, box and Portuguese laurel are usually dearer. In simple terms, the slower a hedge grows, the longer it takes to produce a saleable plant, and the more you normally pay.

Work Required For a Hedge

How much work is involved in planting a hedge?

More than many first-time gardeners expect, but not ridiculous.

The physical work is mostly at the start: clearing the line, removing weeds, improving the soil where needed, setting out the spacing, planting properly and watering in well.¹⁷⁹

After that, the first couple of years matter most. This is the stage where neglect shows. Weeds stealing moisture, missed watering in dry spells, or no formative trimming can leave you with a hedge that is thinner and patchier than it should have been.⁷⁸³

How much maintenance does a hedge need each year?

Enough that you should think about it before you plant.

A hedge usually needs:

• Some pruning after planting to encourage dense growth
• Regular trimming once established
• Watering in prolonged dry spells while young (less than 3 years)
• Occasional feeding or mulching if growth is weak
• Basic checking for gaps, damage or poor shape

RHS is very clear that hedges need pruning after planting and regular trimming once established if you want them dense and tidy.³

How often depends on the hedge and where it is. A neat formal hedge near a path or drive may need more frequent cutting than a looser wildlife-style hedge. Some hedges can be cut less often, but if you leave things too long, the job gets bigger and the result is usually worse.³

How much space will a hedge take up?

For a single row hedge, a reasonable average width would be around 60 cm and for a double staggered row around 90cm. If you have a Leylandii hedge that has not been pruned for a couple of years, that number goes out of the window. The problem you then have is that it needs cutting back harder and if too hard, it will take a long time to recover leaving you with big gaps.⁵

What Are The Biggest Threats to A Hedge?

The biggest threats to a hedge are usually drought, waterlogging, poor establishment, animal damage, bad pruning, weeds when young, and pests or diseases. RHS says most hedge and shrub failures come down to root health, weather, soil conditions and aftercare, especially in the first two years. Weather damage such as drought and waterlogging commonly causes browning, dieback and leaf drop. Rabbits and deer can also seriously damage young plants, while incorrect or drastic pruning can leave some hedges permanently thin or disfigured. Pests and diseases matter too, but in many gardens the biggest day-to-day threats are actually poor planting, lack of watering, and neglect early on.^12101138

Is planting a hedge the right choice for you?

A hedge can be a very good choice if you establish early on what job you want it to do and source the correct hedge plants for the job. That will inform you what the long-term maintenance requirements and issues are. If you are somewhere between ambivalent and doing cartwheels around the garden then it is a good choice for you.