How to Plan To Plant Your New Hedge

A hedge is a basic element of garden design. It provides not only privacy, shelter and a natural decorative boundary, but it can also become a haven for birds and insects. Because a hedge is a permanent feature, a bit of planning and preparation is necessary to make sure that your hedge planting will be a success.

Before rushing out and buying the hedge plants, the first step in the planning process is to decide on the type of hedge you want -- the choices certainly abound. Depending on the look and feel of your garden and its surroundings you can choose to have a formal, clipped hedge that will provide year-round shelter and privacy -- such as an evergreen or deciduous species -- or you can go for an informal native hedge with colorful berries, foliage, and flowers, such as field maple or hawthorn. If your hedge covers a large space and you want extra privacy you may want to consider including hedgerow trees such as ash, oak or wild cherry into the hedge design. An informal hedge design could include roses and decorative shrubs. The height and thickness of your hedge should be determined by its location and function in the garden. You must also decide if you are going to plant in a single or staggered row.

After you’ve got your hedge design all worked out, it’s time to buy the hedge plants. Whatever hedge design you’ve decided on, it’s common sense to buy a disease-resistant species. It’s also better to buy small plants as they grow into a denser hedge. The best planting time is from fall through early spring as long as there’s no frost and the ground isn’t waterlogged, although if you’re buying container-grown plants you can plant them whenever you like. Just remember that they are likely to cost more than plants sold in bare-rooted bundles and you need a lot of plants to make a good hedge.

Whatever type of hedge you are planting, you need to prepare the site by digging over the soil, adding compost and getting rid of debris and weeds\. The length of your hedge will be determined by its place in the garden, but the width of the trench is usually two spades wide (around 2-3 feet) and one spade deep. Spacing depends on the plant species, and whether you are planting in a straight row or staggered. Plants in a formal, clipped hedge are planted closer together than those in an informal native hedge, which might also incorporate flowers and trees.

A hedge might be a hedge, but it needs as much care as your other garden plants. In order to keep your new hedge happy it needs to be mulched, watered and trimmed. A formal hedge should be kept tidy by pruning in early summer and fall while an informal hedge needs minimal clipping. If you are pruning an informal, native hedge just remove any dead or diseased growth; try to avoid removing flowers, berries and seeds.