There are enough articles on this site about how to plant a box hedge, the title is a bit of a fraud really – but it is there because it always amazes us how much effort people put into planting trees and shrubs and how little attention the poor things receive afterwards.

All plants benefit from a bit of TLC, but few reward their owner/grower/carer as much as box hedging plants.

Willow fedges are living structures made from closely planted willows.  Ornate structures can be built up; chairs, houses, pergolas and so on, but in its simplest form a willow fedge is just a living fence.

Tags: Hedging, Willow Fedges

You will often hear people say that you can’t grow apple trees at more than 500 feet above sea level.

While there is a germ of truth in this – as in many old wives’ tales – it is only a germ.  I know of an enormously successful commercial orchard that grows at beween 800 and 850 feet above sea level and crops heavily every year.

Tags: apple trees, Fruit trees, orchards

We are getting a few enquiries about box blight from customers (and non-customers) who are worried that their box hedging might have contracted the dread disease.

When we are sent samples only about a quarter prove to be suffering from box blight which probably means that it is not as serious as people think – more “scare” than “there”. Where it is box blight, almost invariably the gardener concerned followed the old saw about never clipping your box hedge before Derby Day.