It is all hedging at this time of year….

Last year, a certain well known garden presenter who needs remain nameless gave some appallingly bad advice regarding planting yew hedging.  On the basis that if you tell someone NOT to do something they almost certainly WILL, the advice shall remain unrepeated here.  So here are the quick yew hedge planting pointers he (or she) should have concentrated on and that apply equally to almost all other hedging plants as well:

Tags: Hedging, planting, Watering, Yew Hedge

People seem to think that every newly-planted tree needs a stake. They are sometimes (but not always) right as despite lots of writing to the contrary, staking is not always the best thing to do for your tree.

Here are a few reasons why.  Staked trees:

• tend to have a smaller root system than unstaked ones
• they also tend to grow taller and so are not as well anchored as unstaked ones.

Tags: planting, Staking

A lot of people will tell you to spray the weeds off before planting a hawthorn hedge.

Don’t bother. Use woven polypropylene weed prevention fabric instead. Cut the undergrowth short, put the fabric down where you want to plant the hedge and weigh it down with stones. If you want to be really tidy, push a strip about 2″ (5cms) wide of the fabric into the soil with a spade down each edge and at both ends (there is a good film on how to plant a native hedge on our site).

Tags: Hawthorn, planting