Hedging and hedges – planting a beech hedge

If you are planting a beech hedge alongside a wall, the general rule is that if your hedge grows to approximately six feet it should be planted approximately six feet away from the wall. Or you may be better planting a double row of beech seedlings which need to approximately eighteen inches apart and eighteen inches between the rows.

Beech are very hardy and the soil covering your transplants will protect the roots even through a sudden and sharp early frost, but when a new beech hedge comes into leaf, particularly if it has suffered an early frost attack soon after being planted, you will need to ensure that you water it regularly as most of the frost damage is likely to have occurred where you can’t see it – at the roots. This is especially important over the summer months while the roots are established in the sub soil. Beech do not like very damp waterlogged conditions but with them being new transplants you will need to keep an eye on the watering.

You should trim back a beech hedge in the dormant period and be careful not to cut too hard back into the old wood as it will take time to recover. Simple leaf shaping of a beech, like any deciduous hedge can be carried out during the late summer months using an ordinary pair of garden shears.

If your copper beech hedge starts to sprout green leaves, you need to removed any reverted branches as they are more vigorous than the copper or variegate ones and they will eventually overtake the tree.

Hedge gardening beech hedge photograph by ndrwfgg, used under a creative commons attribution licence

 

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