GAPPY HEDGE NEEDS ATTENTION - advice needed please

Hello I am new to the forum and managed to post this on a blog last night instead of a forum so I am trying again.....I am looking for advice please as i have a problematic hedge!! We have a long hedge at the front of our house (approx 18m long / 2.5m high) Mainly hazel, a bit of holly and lots of ivy….

About 4 years ago I cleared out the ivy from half the hedge and this year it looks really thick (hazel) The other half however is a mess of rotten trunks (hazel) and ivy with a bit of hazel in between. I started to clear out the ivy in one part of it and have created huge holes in the hedge. I really want to plug the holes with privet or some other hardy quick growing hedging plants however my biggest issue is that I cannot dig a hole in the gaps to put the plants in!!!! there are so many roots and the hedge itself it raised off the ground 2 ft (there was a raised bed in front of it which we took out so there is an area of sloping ground from the base of the hedge to the lawn - separate issue as can't get much to grow on this!!)

anyway, I digree. Please any advise on how to plant within the holes. The most I am digging in is about 15-20cm, i fear that I will damage roots if I try and use anything else create the holes

Please can anyone give any advice on how I can do this
also i have a very gangly hazel tree within the hedge with a couple of branches coming from a single stem. If i cut this down to about 3 ft will it thicken up or not?

thanks in advance!

 

That sounds like a challenge, Jules! It's going to be Hell's own job to get anything established with so much competition from existing roots, especially ivy.
I doubt you want to hear this, but I'd bite the bullet and take out the holey/messy hedge, prepare the soil thoroughly and re-plant with Hazel. The only way to slot in replacement plants would be to chop out 2' square holes in the existing roots, refresh the soil and then keep the new plants well watered for a couple of years, all the while hoping that the ivy didn't re-sprout and take over. I think it would as, unless you've killed off all it's roots, it's notorious for surviving!
On the bright side, the gangly Hazel should sprout OK from a hard cut

 

If you can afford it have the hedge "layed" - it will look fabulous in 18 months, if not next year.

http://www.hedgelaying.org.uk/styles.htm

A replacement hedge, or bits of the hedge, will be 5 years to give you something that looks like a proper hedge :(

 

Five years for hazel to establish?? In well-prepared soil?? The climate here must be better than I thought....

 

thankyou for you replies - I was hoping for a reply that didn't involve ripping out the hedge! I think you are probably right though. The ivy will be an ongoing problem as an ajoining fence (neighbours) is covered in ivy so it will always creep across. I think I will try and plug the holes somehow for now and then address the ripping out the hedge problem at a later date as it all sounds very expensive!! Thanks for the idea of laying hedges too - i have looked up a couple and will contact them..

I appreciate all your comments thankyou very much

 

I'd be interested to know what sort of money they quote - my perception has been that it is expensive, but perhaps not (relative to having to replant it, for example)

 

hello, a bit of an update i have decided (mainly to save money) to coppice my hedge. much of the hazel seems to have sprouted from old hazel plants and are therefore long and spindly. I am thinking that if I cut down some of the shoots on one side it would help the hedge thicken up and then in a few years I can cut down the other side. I know that sounds a bit long winded but there is a lot of holly shoots in the hedge too so I am hoping it will look good one day!! does anyone have experience of coppicing? do i need to cut the shoots down really low or keep them at different heights so more shoots throughout the height of the hedge? also if i only cut one side will they definitely shoot or will the stems on the other side just grow more? any advice gratefully received.

thanks in advance
Jules

 

I think you would be better off to "lay" it, rather than coppice it. Coppicing will favour the stronger varieties as it grows back, and they will only "come" from where the original plants were - so gaps will still be gaps. The new plants will grow thicker though, particularly if you nip the tips out to encouraging bushing-up as they grow ... but that might not be enough if you have some wide gaps between vigorous plants.

 

Re layering your gaps in the hedge,this is not too hard to do if you go easy ,take a longish branch and slowly lower it to the level across the gap you want to fill,gentle cut through where you want it to lay about half way and fasten it to the ground.It should through up some new shoots from of the stem and strike into the soil below the branch. ( this is what I wastaught to do a lot of years ago when we did hedging on the farms That I first worked on.)

Ian