Tag Archives: Yew Hedge

Clay Soil – Problem or Blessing?

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We want to say it loud and clear if you think clay soil is a problem:

Clay soil is fertile soil that conserves moisture!

Clay soil is good soil, native European plants love it and so do many other trees.

Relatively few plants like really waterlogged soil.
Clay soil becomes waterlogged more easily than other soils and can collect water in certain places, like basins or low lying ground, but really in most places it’s fine to just plant into it.

When water sits in puddles for a long time after rain, one way to break surface water logging is to dig one or more soakaways or sumps.

These are a  lot of work, so it’s good that they do work.
Put them in first and use the soil that comes out to build ridges to plant into.
Clay is good for shaping into raised mounds.

In upland areas, clay soil’s ability to preserve moisture is a good thing – it works well with mulch fabric.

Transplanted hedging and trees survive best in clay soils – it’s plants on drier and sandier soils that need more watering in hot summer.

Long Term Years of Improving Clay Soil:
People who want to really improve the drainage in a plot of clay land each early winter will double dig it over with manure and lime, leaving big bare sods of clay on top, exposed to the frosts over the winter.
This can be covered in mid spring to dry off for digging with more manure and sowing with green manure fertiliser plants.

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!

Dead and Dying Yew Hedges and Trees

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Dying Yew HedgingEnglish Yew has a reputation for being indestructible, and given fair treatment, there are yew trees planted today that will still be alive when mankind (if we survive) will have escaped the solar system.

At the same time, and like any living organism, english yew can die prematurely, but because it is tough you may be able to save your tree or hedge with swift action. Here are a few reasons why yew dies when it should not.

Dogs and Cats kill Yew Trees and Hedging

Well sort of. Actually it is what comes out of the back end of dogs and cats that kills younger yew trees and hedging. Cats like to excavate holes in pretty much the same place and carefully bury their excrement. It is a bit like topdressing with raw lion dung. Not a good idea and, from the tree’s perspective, slow poisoning.

Dogs are worse, in that where one dog pees, others are sure to follow. And then the first one comes back to mark their marks marking his mark, and then they return…. and yews do not like uric acid on either their roots or leaves.

Yew dies by drowning

English Yew grows just about anywhere – there is a lovely yew hedge by the river Wylie that is flooded whenever it rains. But then the ground drains. The moral of the story is that you can plant a yew hedge in any kind of soil as long as the roots do not sit in water for extended periods of time. Dig a trench in solid clay and fill it with lovely compost and top soil and you have created a death trap for your hedge. The clay does not drain and the trench will fill with water and stay that way. So if you are planting on poorly draining soil either ensure there is drainage, or DO NOT PLANT IN A TRENCH. Clear the ground, and plant bare-rooted stock in slits which you close up firmly when you have finished. There is an excellent planting video on our site which shows the technique.

Salt

The salt that is spread on roads whenever there is a hysterical reaction to the possibility of freezing conditions is bad for all plants. Full stop. If your hedge is in a place where thawing ice, snow or just rain will run off, then think about a wall or fence. Most plants hate salt. If your hedge will not suffer from run off, but gets splashed, go out the day after the thaw and wash it with a hose until it has been in the ground for at least 12 months. Given our climate you probably will not have to do this at all.

Root Rot

Root rot is caused by a number of organisms most notably Phytopthora. Some form of pythopthora exists in all soils ( a bit like cold germs in tube trains…). Just because it is there does not mean your yew plants will die, like most diseases it needs the right conditions to cause damage. It is always best therefore to improve the soil with organic matter to help drainage and to encourage new root growth. Expensive plants like yew are also helped if you use a mycorrhizal additive – it is not cheap but the benefits are considerable.

Honey fungus

As with phytopthora there are a number of forms of Honey Fungus, not all of which are dangerous to plants. However the ones that are kill any tree or woody plant whose defences they penetrate. Yew included although the number of reported deaths of yew cause by honey fungus is very few as it is extremely resistant. Honey fungus travels underground and attacks trees and hedge plants through their root systems. If you cleanly trim off any broken bits of root with secateurs before planting, and if you improve the soil with organic matter, you reduce the chance of a honey fungus attack.

Watch your hedging grow, and enjoy