Hedges and headaches

It became obvious early on that something had to be done to protect the garden from high winds. Perhaps, a more perceptive person would have realised the significance of the ever increasing number of wind turbines dotted around the area. The first time I experienced one of our wind storms I was shocked at its strength and seeing buckets, flower pots and plastic chairs flying through the air as if they were part of a macabre dance routine was surreal if not frightening. After much research and head scratching we decided that neither wall nor fence would do; walls can be costly and we’d already had one fall foul of a particularly strong storm, we’d also experienced a flying fence panel. So, it had to be hedges, not only were they better suited to the size of our pockets, they would be aesthetically pleasing and would also help in our quest to attract more wildlife into the garden.

Now we had to decide what variety of hedge to plant. We garden on clay and even though we were drawn towards Beech we felt that Hornbeam would be a more suitable alternative. It is the hardest of our indigenous trees, it’s strong and tough and so would hopefully be able to withstand forceful winds; it can cope much better with clay soil than Beech and, like the Beech it retains its leaves throughout the autumn and sometimes well into winter. We also had a notion to pleach two hedges to form arches and Hornbeam is renowned for the ease by which it can be pleached or trained.

We found a local supplier and purchased 400 Hornbeam whips. To ensure that the hedges gave us the best protection we had to take into account the direction of the prevailing wind (usually South Westerly) and also the overall design of the garden. Because we used whips it only took us a day to plant all 5 hedges. These would become the backbone of the garden.

3 years later the hedges had reached a height of 4 feet and the branches were beginning to knit. In my ignorance I was going to leave them to reach 6 feet before giving them their first clip. I was advised by a gardening friend to trim them as this would benefit their shape and ensure strong growth. This was indeed the case and by 2019 they are over 12 feet in height and every year we take them down to 10 feet. Unlike many, I never look forward to the August bank holiday as I know that for most of the weekend I will be engaged in my favourite job (not) of hedge clipping. I’m hoping that our newly acquired Niwaki hedge ladder will make lighter and safer work of it all this year.

There is no doubt that Hornbeam makes for a superior hedge. However, we do have Beech, Yew and Box hedges in the garden, their main function to please the eye and as such they are much easier to maintain.