Gone are the days when neighbors tried to separate plots from each other with high fences. Now hedges are used for these purposes – they both look attractive and protect from the winds quite reliably. True, a hedge in the country is unlikely to help from unwanted penetration, since its main purpose is the aesthetic function and zoning of the site.
How to properly plant a multi-row hedge
Long monotonous pine hedges are as boring as a long fence, but they can be varied, as one option is to create multi-row hedges. Low-growing shrubs are planted in the first row, and higher ones (for example, turf, hazel, linden, hairy lilac) in the second and third. Some levels can be cut, some can be allowed to grow freely, this will be a good contrast.
Here is an example of such a hedge made of conifers and perennial shrubs:
1 series – a low sheared hedge made of spirea gray 1 m high;
2 series – freely growing mock-mushrooms of the Mont Blanc variety, 2 m high, blooming in mid-May for three weeks; as an alternative, you can use a collection of green-leaved chubushniks, different varieties will bloom at different times, the total flowering time of this row will increase to a month;
3 series – light purple and dark purple lilacs 4-5 m high, blooming in mid-May.
In multi-row perennial hedges, a combination of contrastingly colored plants looks spectacular (for example, a combination of light green and dark purple foliage looks interesting, yellow-leaved shrubs will play brightly against the background of dark needles).
As you can see in the photo, in hedges, the combination of deciduous and coniferous species looks just great and very unusual:
And how to properly plant a hedge in several rows? If you plant varieties of the same plant different in color in one row, for example, differently colored varieties of western thuja, viburnum, barberry are suitable for this option, then you get the so-called marble sheared hedge.
The best hedge is one in which plants are combined not only from an aesthetic point of view, but also have similar biological characteristics – growth rate, relation to light, moisture, soil composition.
The hedge with inserts of vines looks original, but does not take up much space.
If the hedges intersect at right angles, then one of them can be with dark green glossy leaves, for example, from a shiny cotoneaster, and the other with matte light green leaves, for example, from arguta spirea.
It is not necessary for the top line of the hedge to be parallel to the ground.
A medium-high green wall will be created by a brilliant cotoneaster, tall varieties and types of barberry, as well as spring-flowering species of spirea – Van Gutt’s spirea, gray, oak-leaved arguta.
Well, low green hedges-borders can be made from Kuril tea (Potentilla), Thunberg barberry and low types of spirea – Japanese spirea and Boomald, as well as low and medium varieties of western thuja and privet, including its yellow-leaved form.
Especially often they use curbs when creating parterres, they are also good as a bordering sheared row of a composition, making it more effective and neat.
Which thuja are best suited for hedges
In central Russia, to create a hedge with your own hands, the best plants are pyramidal and columnar varieties of western thuja and common juniper, as well as varieties and types of spruce.
Thuja western are shade-tolerant, frost-hardy, not demanding on soils – they will grow on clay and sand, on dry and waterlogged places, but, of course, they will be most beautiful on good garden soil with sufficient moisture.
Seed-grown species are relatively cheap, but naturally not as posh as varietal ones. Material for a thuja hedge can be grown not only from seeds, but also from cuttings; recently, thuja with a height of 50-60 cm are also inexpensively sold by chain hypermarkets. A hedge is planted at a distance of 50 cm, in the first year they are not cut.
In the second or even third year, they trim the tops for better tillering. In the third year, in addition to the top, lateral shoots are also cut. Tui grows continuously throughout the season, they can be cut 2-3 times a season.
The crowns of thujas are by their nature dense and dense, therefore the formation of a hedge is quite easy. It is best to cut them at the end of June after the end of the active spring growth of the shoots. It is desirable to make the profile of the hedge trapezoidal.
What are the best thuja for a hedge in the middle lane? The most luxurious variety is the columnar thuja “Smaragd”. Its needles do not turn red and do not turn brown either in autumn or winter, retaining a juicy emerald color throughout the year, but it grows more slowly than other varieties. This variety of thuja does not tolerate a haircut, keep it loose.
And what kind of thuja are suitable for a sheared hedge in our conditions? Thuja “Braband” tolerates even a radical haircut, but is prone to abundant fruiting, which looks sloppy.
What is a hedge and at what distance to plant it
What plants can you plant a hedge from if thuja do not attract you? A spruce hedge looks great, once such were popular in Russian estates. To create it, take seedlings 50 cm high and plant them at a distance of about 1 m from each other.
Do not prune in the year of planting. Starting from the second year, cut in May-June, shortening the lateral shoots by about two-thirds of the length with the pruning shears, the apical shoot by one-third. This pruning will give good branching the next year.
It is important to cut the hedge regularly, since for spruce, cutting wood older than 3 years is undesirable, that is, it is impossible to fix a neglected or damaged hedge. Trimming is carried out until a given hedge height is obtained, forming a trapezoidal or rectangular profile.
When the desired height is reached, the spruce hedge is supported by pruning with garden shears in late March – early April. The operation is repeated for all subsequent years. Thanks to this, young Christmas trees actively branch and do not bare from below, creating an impenetrable green fence. If you plant not species plants in the hedge, but compact varieties, then they will not require a haircut, it’s a pity, they are not cheap and grow slowly.
What other hedges are easy to maintain and aesthetically pleasing? Junipers love the sun, tolerate drought, are frost-resistant, but cannot live in heavy clay soil and in flooded areas.
Species plants do not take root well, therefore they are not suitable for creating a hedge, you will have to buy planting material with a closed root system in a nursery. How far should they plant their juniper hedges? The optimal distance is 50-80 cm from each other, in one row.
The size of the juniper in the container can be any, the optimal age of the seedling is 3-4 years. Junipers are cut with scissors for cutting shrubs 1-2 times a year.
All types of hedges help to zone the garden, protect from prying eyes, emphasize the beauty of flower and shrub compositions, and protect from noise, dust and wind. They are created for many years, so it is better to design, plant and grow them according to all the rules.
In the next section of the article, you will find out what shrubs can be used for hedges in central Russia.
What shrubs can be used for hedges
Hedges can be very different: sheared or free growing, coniferous or deciduous, made from the same species of shrubs or combined, single or multi-row, prickly or soft.
All hedges, both deciduous and coniferous, are created from densely leafy trees and shrubs that lend themselves well to shearing. The main thing is that the plants from which you can make a hedge have a dense crown and relatively slow growth.
Free-growing hedges look less formal than shorn ones, but they require a significant amount of space, their width is from 1 to 3 m. Most often, such hedges are created from rocks with natural compact crowns.
What shrubs are used for free growth hedges? Such hedges should include beautifully flowering and spectacularly fruiting plants that can transform the monotonous appearance of the “green wall” (rose hips, euonymus, various types of spirits, Hungarian and Amur lilacs, chubushnik).
In central Russia, you can also use different types of hawthorn, elderberry, Maak’s honeysuckle and Tatar. Of what other shrubs there is a hedge, it is from the gordovina viburnum (the common viburnum often suffers from the leaf beetle), bladderworms and barbers.
Evergreen sheared hedge
The trimmed evergreen hedges are compact in width and are therefore most suitable for small gardens. The creation and maintenance of a clipped hedge in good condition will require material, time and physical costs, this work is not limited to planting. When you decide to grow a cropped or formal hedge in your garden, you will have to work on it your whole life.
It is extremely important to observe the technology of cutting plants, since the gross mistakes made are practically not subject to correction. In addition to regularly trimming the hedge, you need to provide it with enough moisture and nutrients so that the plants can replenish what they lost when pruning.
Free-growing shrubs can be ignored for some time, but often planted and regularly cut shrubs in molded hedges need to be fed and watered annually, applying organic and mineral fertilizers. If the soils are very fertile, they can be applied once every 3-4 years, the poor require feeding every year. In addition to watering and fertilizing, weeding, loosening, mulching, as well as spraying from pests and diseases will be needed.
Neglecting the needs of plants affects the appearance of the hedge. The soil around the plants in the hedge should not be allowed to sod, cut the lawn in time, the ground at a distance of 50 cm on both sides of the hedge should be mulched.
Fences can be classified by height. Fences higher than 2 m are called high, medium – 1,5-2 m high, low – 1-1,5 m, curb – 30-50 cm high.
With age, tall hedges become impenetrable and impenetrable for sight, that is, they successfully play the role of a fence, protect against pollution and dust, as well as wind, create a special microclimate, and serve as an excellent background for ornamental plants. They introduce clear lines into the structure of the garden, with their help, you can divide the garden into separate functional zones, disguise household structures or a vegetable garden zone.
In central Russia, tall deciduous sheared hedges can be made from trees such as small-leaved linden, alpine currant, brilliant cotoneaster, spring flowering spire, hawthorn (thorny, blood-red and slate), Ginnala maple and Tatar.
It is possible to “construct” excellent coniferous tall sheared hedges from ordinary and thorny spruce, from western thuja and junipers.
Coniferous hedge (with photo)
A coniferous hedge looks austere and is a great backdrop for flowering or decorative deciduous plants. The evergreen “fence” will reliably protect the garden from prying eyes, even in winter.
Severity, monotony, the ability to get a good haircut make the coniferous fence a desirable decoration for the garden, it always looks respectable.
The range of suitable conifers that can grow in the climate of central Russia is small – these are western thuja, spruce and common juniper. Conifers grow slowly and are expensive.
As you can see in the photo, a coniferous hedge can be shorn and grow freely:
Unwanted plants for a perennial hedge
If one or more plants freeze out in your “green fence” in some harsh winter, it will lose its appearance immediately and forever, therefore yew, privet and boxwood, so spectacular in warm Europe, we have poor candidates for “building” a living hedges. But not all frost-resistant shrubs should be planted in hedges. With age, the lower part of the varietal lilac bush is exposed.
It must either be covered with plants planted in front of it, or use wild species of lilac, drooping, Hungarian and Amur, which are quite suitable for creating a green wall, as they grow quickly, form a dense volume, are unpretentious and resistant to pests.
Viburnum is a very beautiful shrub, but, unfortunately, it suffers greatly from pests that can eat it to the ground by the middle of summer; for a hedge, it is better to replace it with viburnum arrogance.
Also undesirable plants for hedges are silver oak, fieldfare and ornamental flowering mapinuclein. There is another problem with them – they crawl, scatter and are able to fill the entire garden with root suckers. Of course, they can be controlled, but still not worth using in a hedge.
