Tag Archives: Watering

Hedging – Plants with Feet of Clay

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It is all hedging at this time of year….

These yew hedge planting pointers apply equally to almost all other hedging plants as well, certainly anything that needs a well drained soil.

  1. You can dig a trench to plant your hedging if the ground is well drained.
  2. You can improve the soil as much as you like if the ground is well drained.
  3. You should water your plants well and often if the ground is well drained.
  4. You can use the largest plants you can afford if the ground is well drained.

You have spotted a pattern here: when planting a hedge, it is important to think about drainage.

If you have heavy clay soil (sticky grey, blue or yellow), the good news is that you have richly fertile soil.
The bad news is that water does not drain well through it, which some plants have a problem with.

So please, save yourself a lot of hard work and a load of grief.  Watch our film on how to plant a country hedge (link on the home page) even if you are planting the smartest yew.

  1. On badly drained soils, always plant small plants.
  2. On badly drained soils, always plant in a slit, not a trench.
  3. On badly drained soils, improve the soil after planting and when your hedging is growing away by adding a mulch of well rotted compost/manure and letting the worms do the work.
  4. On badly drained soils, only water newly planted hedging if there is a danger that the soil will dry out completely. When you do water, soak the plants and then DO NOT WATER for a couple of weeks afterwards.

The reason is this:
If you dig a hole or trench in clay, it fills with water when it rains and the surface puddle water on the surrounding ground tries to run into your hole, keeping it full.
The fact that you backfilled the hole with lovely, porous compost when planting only gives it the consistency of a sponge in a bath.  The roots of almost all hedging plants need to be able to breathe underground.
A trench in clay means they will probably drown.

So plant hedging on clay the easy way and dig as little as possible!

Water Water Everywhere, and not a drop….

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So the long hot english summer is at an end. Politely waiting for the longest (and most boring?) Wimbledon men’s final of recent times before breaking, the weather is now distinctly “showery”.

But please do not stop watering. The ground has been baked hard over the last 4-5 weeks and the vast majority of the water that has fallen over the last 24 hours will have run to waste. This is in part because it simply runs off the surface to the nearest drain, partly because hedge plant, fruit tree and other roots tend to be several inches down in the soil and the water needs to wet the soil above before it can reach them and partly because plants are clever things and sort of slow their metabolisms down when it is dry so they use less water. Part of this process involves changing their root structures, so you will find that plants take a little time ( a week or two) after a very hot spell to start taking up moisture easily.

In the meantime, they will need spoon (i.e. hose) feeding. Especially in need of a good drink are fruit - apple trees and soft fruit bushes especially – make sure they get a steady supply of water to keep their fruit swelling without splitting.

Relax and watch your garden grow!