There are many solutions for enclosing your garden. You can choose wire mesh, concrete or wooden fence. However, the most natural option is a hedge. Now is an excellent time to set them up.
A rich green hedge has many advantages. It absorbs dust particles, dampens noise and wind, and contributes to the overall temperature reduction and increased air humidity. If such a fence is tall enough, it also protects, evokes a sense of intimacy, prevents unwanted views, and contributes to the overall attractiveness of the particular exterior.
Wild or Shaped
A hedge can have many shapes and forms. It is common in modern gardens to place shaped hedges from deciduous or evergreen trees, while in more traditional and rural gardens, the free-growing, i.e., an unshaped hedge, is more common and more natural. However, you have to part more space for it because it is more uneven than the shaped one. The advantage is that you need to take care of it regularly. It may consist of one or more tree species. During the year, it changes, surprises with flowers and lush foliage. In fall, with berries or distinctive colors of leaves or bark. Hedges, created of various trees with edible berries (shadbush, chokeberry), are more popular.
What Kind of Trees to Choose?
Hedges can be established from deciduous and evergreen leaves and even some conifers. The range of suitable trees you can use for this purpose is extensive, especially during the fall. When choosing a place, you should always assess the conditions, consider the light, moisture, or soil PH, and the time you will be able to dedicate to such vegetation. Remember that some species of trees will grow in sunny, others in semi-shaded to shady habitats. The width and height of the selected tree are important too. If you are setting up a wild hedge and it is to be a bush for shaping, find out to what height the species can be shaped. You can get trees in containers or, to a lesser extent, bare-root trees. Rooted seedlings from containers can be planted during the entire growing season, i.e., not only during the fall. The bare-root seedlings can only be planted in the fall or spring. In addition to traditional privet, the best deciduous plants for the shaped hedges include field maple, European beech, hornbeam, barberries, myrobalan, characterized by purple foliage, laurel, photinia, Buxus and firethorns. You can shape cypress, thuja, spruce, or yew from evergreen and coniferous trees. Flowering plants, such as lilac, weigela, meadowsweet, mock orange, ninebark, forsythia, or Ribes sanguineum, are suitable for wild hedges.
How to Plant
You can plant the hedge yourself. However, careful site preparation is a prerequisite for success. Compost or fertilizer with gradual release of nutrients should be incorporated into the soil at the plating place in advance. The planting hole should be wide enough to accommodate all the roots from the container, but there is also a way to dig a wider hole and distribute individual shrubs into it. It is very important to take care of the correct spacing between individual plants. You can help yourself with stretched thread and gauge. Different distances are recommended for each species. This information can be verified on the Internet. After planting, the trees should be well watered. You can spread decorative bark on the soil surface around the planted bushes. You can achieve an attractive hedge by giving it enough moisture, annual fertilization, and cutting in the right periods in the case of shaped trees.
Text: Daniel Košťál, photo: Pixabay
