A place to learn, share and inspire others to create a haven for you and for wildlife.
Sign In or Register to join the conversation
Hi all,
This is my first post on the HfW forums, though I've been a member for about a year. I'm just getting underway with a pretty big project to plant up my garden to be wildlife friendly, and I'm probably going to need lots of advice from people experienced in such things.
When we moved here 2.5 years ago, the plot - which is shaped like a cross between an almost-right angled triangle and the top of an oast-house - was almost totally surrounded by massively tall conifers and laurels, as well as having huge deciduous trees all along the slanting (east) side. I hardly ever saw sunlight ... :( and as for the wildlife ... one or two wasps and butterflies, the occasional passing blackbird, and a pair of great tits nesting in a box on a pillar hidden inside a viburnum bush. After a year I'd had enough and most of the conifers came down ( deep joy - daylight and sunshine at last!!). Since then I hacked back an overgrown laurel shrubbery and diiscovered some garden I hardly knew existed.
That all has left me with a fair amount of space to plant up for the birds and wildlife. Last year a garden guru did a design for me for a wildlife friendly garden, I didn't have time to get it underway then but i'm making a start now, while it's still the hedge planting season.
Last week I got one of the RSPB hedging packs from Ashridge, along with a couple of elder, 2 alder buckthorn ( some one mentioned that RSPB was encouraging planting these for the Brimstone flutterbies), some pyracantha, and singles of yew, forsythia, sweet briar, wayfaring tree and ornamental crab-apple. One question I have is, when I have planted the hedging whips, should I cut them down or not? The Ashridge website says not to for this type of mixed hedge, but I noticed that Adrian Thomas in a couple of his blogs (several years back) mentioned that when he planted his hedge, he did cut the whips down to encourage bushiness. If I don't cut them, will they still grow suitably bushy for the birds?
The other current query is, would it be best to keep the 2 alder buckthorn together or at least close, is that better for the Brimstones than having one in each garden?
Sorry, I've gone on rather ! Thanks for your help in advance - I hope I start getting more wildlife and birds soon.
Tricia
... I'd rather be gardening ; )
Hi Tricia
I have been looking around the internet for advice on hedging and most seem to say that new hedges with plants that are 1-2 years should be cut down to 6-10" when planted to encourage bushiness.
So I would plant now and maybe once they start to shoot out in the spring cut them down to strong shoots.
Hope that helps.
Ps I would love to have a garden where I could 'discover' parts I hardly new existed!
I can see most of mine in one go!!
Good luck with your hedge.
MP
It's not always easy to hug a hedgehog.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't.
Thanks, MP. I can give that a try and see what happens. Once spring comes and things start growing, I won't be able to resist going out every day to see how much they are growing -I'm already like that with the crab apple and pyracantha I've planted so far (doh!).
As to the size of my garden, it's not actually that big - it was just that the neighbour's huge laurel and sycamore, plus a laurel on my side, were growing out over my garden so much that they were hiding a strip along the boundary. It is only about 8ft wide at the widest. That's where I'm going to put the hedging, with maybe some small shrubs and flowers in front at a later date.
Thanks for your good wishes - I'm going out shortly to continue with the hedging prep - wonder if I can plant 50 whips in less than 3 hours?!!
Thanks, Alan.
I hadn't seen that blog showing how is hedge is now. I hope mine ends up like that. Did you plant a hedge in the end?
CM,Ithink you need to do some research on what to do to each individual species as for sure I think some will not tolerate cutting down to encourage bushiness,my thinking is some will tolerate it and some will die.
The pyracantha will need some cutting back, the ones we have were left and are just open spaces inside but are a nightmare to try and cut right back. I've tried cutting it back to encourage denser growth but it isn't an easy task (in other words - I gave up after my arms ended up shredded!). I would cut those ones back quite harshly every few as they can be pruned back quite severely and bounce back pricklier than ever.
Millie & Fly the Border Collies
Hi Sooty, I think you are probably right - when I started planting the pack today, i noticed some plants don't look the sort that can be pruned hard this early, eg Euonymus have more than one, thick, stem. I guess Ashridge's other mixed hedge packs don't include these plants. I'd best check the info on all the different plants in my mix.
KT, the pyracantha got an accidental trim as I took them out of their boxes, which took off the top foot or so. Though they are still about 6 foot high, as they have pretty good sideways growth and are going together in front of a high wooden fence, I don't think I'll cut them down any more this year. I know what you mean about shredding your arms - next time I prune them I'll use some industrial-strength gauntlets my husband got from somewhere! :O
Alan, I'm just the same - it took me 4 months to get round to organising this hedging. My garden isn't very wildlife friendly though, so I wanted to get on and improve it. Funnily enough, I was thinking of Teasel too. wonder if I can find any that will flower this year ?
Hi Tricia and welcome to the forum from North Somerset also!
There are lots of conflicting thoughts on whether to cut a hedge back hard to encourage wildlife or whether to shy away from the clippers to keep it more wild and loose!
I know that isn't much help but it does demonstrate that there isn't really a right or wrong answer!
Some species of bird in particular will thank you for a dense hedge to give protection and nesting opportunities where as others will like a looser hedge for foraging or to escape from predators through or of course some varying height to sit and watch or even perch and sing from!
Now I'm certainly no expert but my own opinion is that you need to try and create as close to nature as you can, which unfortunately means all of the above!
The native hedge that I currently have and the one that I am continuing to develop has to serve the below purposes...
Hi Higgy, thanks for your most useful thoughts. I'm going to be getting on with the planting tomorrow (actually, today now lol), like you suggest I'll try to provide for some dense and some loose areas, rather than being totally random. The hedge has no particular purpose other than to be more attractive than a fence or laurel hedge, so I don't need to think about anything other than how to make it work best for wildlife.
I don't know offhand if the Ashridge mix includes any autumn flowering shrubs, I think the blackthorn and cherry plum at least are spring flowering, and I do have an Escallonia in the bed already with I believe flowers in the Autumn.
Thanks for your offer of advice too!