Hedging Plants Tips and Snips

Your Hedging Plants
Your Hedging plants are supplied as fresh as they can be, as we dig them to order from our own nursery. The majority of plants are delivered in black and white co-extruded plastic bags as recommended by the Forestry Commission or in our specially designed plant boxes to keep them secure throughout their journey to you.

Storing your Hedging Plants
On the plants arrival if you are not going to be planting them straight away they can be stored for up to two weeks without detriment in a barn or shed, although the quicker they are planted the better. For storage beyond two weeks, you will need to ensure that their roots remain moist; it is recommended you put them in a trench and cover the roots with soil to help preserve them.

If you have removed your plants from the plastic bags when they arrived, you will need to wrap the roots up again either back in the same packaging or bin bags to keep the roots well protected. You can store your plants standing upright or on their sides.

If the weather is freezing please do not move you plants if they are frozen. Although roots can survive when completely frozen, it does mean they can easily become broken and snapped, so moving your plants around in this weather can be damaging, so leave them where they are.

Please ensure you do not:
-Store them in a warm and/or sunny place
-Stand the roots in bucket of water as that will drown them!
-Stack your plants on top of one another or put weight on them as this could damage the  roots.

Planting
You will need to prepare the soil by killing the weeds, digging the soil over and then you can add tree and shrub compost; bone meal is also helpful to establish strong root growth. Grass should be removed in a metre wide strip to provide enough room for the hedging plants.

Here at Crowders we suggest each plant should be 12inches/30cm apart in a single row which works out at 3 per meter. If you require a thicker hedge you would to plant a double row which will require 5 plants per meter which you would plant staggered. To plant a double row, you just plant 2 single rows in parallel, with 40-50cms between the rows and you stagger the plants.

If planting in late March it is recommended that the roots are submersed in water for 24 hours prior to planting so that the plants are full of water.  Putting them in a pond edge or water butt will be fine as long as it is clean water.  This helps prevent putting the plants under stress during a dry spring, as the plants will quickly come into leaf after planting.

Aftercare
We would also advise to protect the young hedge plants from rabbits by putting a spiral guard around each plant supported by a small bamboo cane.

In the first year the new hedge should be kept well watered and weed free to enable the hedge to establish well. Particularly Evergreens will need a good soak during any dry spells.

Mulching
We also would recommend mulching. Mulching is a layer of organic matter that you place over the soil around the plant to retain the moisture in the soil, keep the sun off the soil so there is less chance of it drying out an to reduce the growing of weeds. You can make your own using rotted manure, grass clippings or leaf mould. Mulching is the best way to keep the moisture in the soil and means you will be able to water the plant less often. Mulching your plants also means you can go away for a couple of nights safely as long as you have given them a good watering beforehand. If you want to go away for longer you would have to get some to come in and water them for you once a week, possibly twice if you have sandy soil which is quite dry.

Applying Mulch is simple. You need to place it about an inch thick over the soil around your plants, ensuring you keep it about 5-6 inches away from the stems. Do not make the mulch too thick (no more than 2 inches) as the roots may start to grow upwards!

Download the Hedging Plants Tips and Snips sheet.

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2. April Gardening Tips and Snips
3. October Gardening Tips and Snips
4. May Gardening Tips and Snips
5. August Gardening Tips and Snips