Hedging & Screening
Hedging & screening is part of every great British garden. Whether you are using low growing lavender or buxus or the taller Prunus or bamboo, hedges create borders, edges and form within the garden. They can be formal or relaxed making the look of every garden unique.
Hedging & screening plants are traditionally easy to grow and require little maintenance.
Bamboo screening
Perfect for privacy and screening. Best planted in spring so that the food reserves in the rhizome are used to produce a good flush of fresh canes in summer.
Before planting, dig over the ground and add well-rotted manure or garden compost.
Dig a planting hole so that the root ball sits slightly lower, with 2-3cm (1in) of soil covering the original surface. Backfill the hole, taking care not to damage the young rhizomes, then water and mulch.
Water regularly and ensure that bamboo plants in containers do not dry out even in winter as the foliage is prone to wind scorch.
Give a high nitrogen feed in spring and apply a balanced fertiliser through the rest of the growing season until late August.
Keep plants well-watered during the growing season but don’t allow them to stand in water if it’s cold and in a pot.
New bamboo plants can be contained within a physical barrier to prevent them spreading through beds and borders unless you choose a variety like Fargesia that doesn’t spread.
Rustic Hedging
Rustic hedging such as lavender and red robin are perfect for a country garden look. They are informal and easy to grow as hedging options and are winter hardy. With little maintenance they provide a lovely relaxed look for creating boundaries, edging and groundcover.
Lavender can be grown in large pots, 30-40cm (1ft-16in) diameter, using a multipurpose or loam-based compost such as JI No 3, with some extra coarse grit, (up to 30%), to improve drainage, along with some controlled release fertiliser granules.
Ensure that the compost is regularly watered in summer, although for improved cold tolerance, kept on the dry side during winter by standing in a cold greenhouse or in the rain shadow of walls.
Red Robin is often planted as an ornamental shrub or as a fast-growing, dense hedge. Photinia will grow approx 30cm each year, and should be trimmed in spring and summer or can be left informal, just being trimmed down when needed.
Photinia prefers a sunny site but will tolerate partial shade and although frost hardy young plants should be protected in winter until established.
Traditional Hedging
Laurel varieties are easy to grow in any moist but well-drained, moderately fertile soil in sun or partial shade. Its spreading habit makes it useful for low hedges and massed planting. Try clipping it low to create and evergreen laurel ‘lawn’ under specimen shrubs and trees. Add Mycorrhizal fungi to the roots when planting to help plants establish quicker. Keep plants well-watered while they establish. Hedges may be trimmed in spring or autumn to keep them tidy and shaped, if pruning at the end of the season (when growth has finished), do it before the onset of very cold weather.
Buxus or box hedging used for centuries as a classic garden hedge or to form borders around other planting such as roses.
Plant box in autumn or spring in fertile, well-drained soil and keep it watered, especially if grown in full sun.
Pot-grown plants can be planted any time of year as long as the ground is not wet or waterlogged.