How to plant a hedge and why it’s better than a fence | The RHS

[@benmarsh5672]

The campaign for hedges needs to aimed at housing construction companies, if they started by planting them rather than boundary fencing or walls, then the risk of flooding would reduce, natural highways would become part of the construction and a greener better future. By the time you’ve bought the property, most people will not take down something that is a quick and easy security feature to replace with hedges, which will take years to provide anything similar. We need to start at the beginning, rather than try to deal with it part of the way through and open our homes up to potentially being vandalised or burgled.

[@quercus21]

Agree. I would say local councils could learn a thing or two. We have a small b&b and our council have taken all hospitality parking permits away and have implemented a charge per car per day which is extortionate. Lots of businesses including us had to extend our car parks. We had to take out a mature Cotinus with some lovely planting and replaced it with tarmac just to add 3 spaces. Broke my heart but it would have financially damaged the business.

[@radharcanna]

A fabulous video. Nick is a natural presenter. More like this please.

[@jackstone4291]

Great video! RHS, the whole nation even the whole world needs to see videos like this one. Great stuff

[@MattSmith-ks2lc]

I already love hedges. The dead hedge is also a great idea. Thank you for the excellent video!

[@mmetcalfe22]

Great video Nick. Very informative from the RHS as usual. I’ve got a few dead hedges in my garden. They really are a great way to use old branches and give the little creatures in the garden a new home.

[@janetbex7526]

Hedges ARE better than fences. I have a 10 foot high privet hedge on my property. It has just been allowed to grow; no trimming for a flat top. It flowers in the spring, which smells fantastic, and berries in the autumn for the wildlife. It screens us from the neighbors and looks great. Thanks for this. I love a good hedge!

[@francestaylor9156]

Privet is considered an invasive plant in some places. It's on Tennessee's invasive plant list. The deer won't eat it so it takes over and chokes out the native plants. I definitely recommend checking your local invasive plant list.

[@maryeustace1620]

Informative and enjoyable to listen to. Thank you.

[@mawkernewek]

In my parents garden, we had so many self-seeded saplings of bay, we just moved them to make a hedge.

[@oldauntzibby4395]

I assume there would be huge benefits to having a multi-species hedgerow instead of a single-species one. Species diversity is so important to help as many pollinators, birds, and small mammals as possible. A diverse hedgerow would be able to withstand weather and moisture variables: even if one plant species was stressed, another may be able to thrive. And regenerative ag research has shown that monocrops don't do as well as multi-species plantings. The more diversity, the better the plants grow as a whole. Plus, a diverse hedgerow would probably make a better screen, since it could include low, bushy plants and those that are more tree-like and taller, with sturdier trunks, as well as evergreens and deciduous for year-round cover.

[@m00n119]

im in Australia and live in a rural acreage block that came with a wattle and bottlenush hedge and it is amazing at blocking road noise, dust and hairy panic grass and attracts lots of fairy wrens 👍 hedges are great

[@BB-cb1ht]

Brilliant! We all are learning new ways to look at our environment. 😄

[@achatzia]

Hedges can also be planted in an E-shaped way, to give pockets or "rooms". This can be used to build even more variations in your garden. So one pocket can be a flower bed, the other for vegetables, or a seating area.

[@louise2209]

I have a small dead hedge at the bottom of my garden as a barrier for hedging plants, a lot of which are actually cuttings or self seeded plants. The dead hedge is made up of twigs and branches I can’t woodchip from prunings mostly. It’s definitely not a quick fix as there’s very little imports, but it will be lovely when it is done.

[@macsmiffy2197]

How opportune. I’m planning to do just that this spring. The boundary fence between me and my neighbour has gradually blown down year by year, panel by panel, in the gales, but it’s not my fence. It’s a landlord situation whereby they are not interested in replacing it. I’ve already got various shrubs like choiysia and aucuba giving some screening, so I’m just going to fill in the gaps. The builders boundary fence is still there, so that’s not an issue. I’m happy to keep both sides pruned as the tenants don’t seem to be gardeners.

[@JohnWalker-mi6bw]

Have you ever considered blackcurrents for a hedge?

[@richielavery2446]

My neighbour has a 40+ year old yew hedge in the front garden along our boundary line. I bought my house a year ago and it is a lovely hedge, however she has allowed about 90% of the hedge to grow totally on my side of the garden. I obviously can’t justify chopping out all that lovely yew, however it’s meant I’ve now lost a significant amount of my own growing space. So I agree with the sentiment of the video, but if it’s along a shared boundary then I feel care needs to be taken by whoever planted it that the hedge stays their hedge…

[@filougreendog]

fortunately yew will grow back from old wood and will take hard pruning

[@MartinaSchoppe]

I'd ask her, if she is okay, if you cut it back on your side. Yew is pretty good at growing back from old wood.

[@filougreendog]

thumbs up for privet, ticks a lot of boxes, evergreen, long lived, can be cut right back if needed and even mature decades old plants will transplant if you cut them back to a stump.

[@Leepinkmusic]

Yes great ideas

[@robinsiciliano8923]

Yes!

[@abeleli2651]

Good

[@wildwanderer6025]

Hedges are great, but they are a lot of work. You need to be aware that you will have to trim the hedge at least 2-3 times a year and the debris needs to go somewhere. Thorny hedges are especially bad to work with. You might have to work on a ladder...

[@filougreendog]

i would hazard a guess that its probably still cheaper to pay someone to do that than the cost of a replacement fence over howeverlong it lasts and treating it etc

[@digdeeper6608]

Most hedges will be fine if you trim them just once a year in late August. Remember that pruning from Feb to Aug can disturb nesting birds, which is illegal, so always check for nests at other times.

[@tmmtmm]

The idea that a tree is "overgrown" and needs pruning only to expose ugliness that then needs a fence to hide it, made from the prunings, is bizarre. Just don't prune the tree because it obviously didn't need it. Classic british gardening techniques solving problems that shouldn't exist. Just embrace nature as it instead of pruning everything to a shape that inevitably creates endless pruning work in the future.

[@mauertal]

NO match to "Hedge 1942"".................!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@rndmcnflct]

Delusional

[@colly7963]

So your solution to the problem of hedges taking ages to grow is to install a wall. Genius. Now you doubled the workload.