We want a nice tall hedge out the front of our house – problem is the soil it has to grow in is quite shallow. There used to be a nice tall laurel hedge next door which got cut down during a renovation, so we went with that and planted it, thinking it would take.
Despite the watering and minding it died over the last few months (pics attached). Any advice on what hedge we should plant and how to go about it?
by paddyjay
6 Comments
Laurel is fine, just dig down and add good soil
The 2nd photo looks like the young plants are very close to the brickwork & metal, which may be drying out or scorching them. With hedges though, there’s a certain presumed % failure rate for plants where you just need to replant.
Not sure how far you’ve planted the hedge from your foundations, so just a small suggestion – you might want to research laurel roots for the potential effect on your type of foundation before replanting.
Should probably add more soil somehow. Maybe more bricks and then soil in there. Also, make sure you mulch or else the plants root can get scorched.
Plants are too close to each other and the roots are competing for nutrients where there probably already is lack of, should be around 40/50cm of distance between each rootball.
Keep it clear from weeds
Use fertiliser
Prune it so it will grow fuller
So should I rip it all up and start again with new laurel on both hedges? Only rip up the dead ones, replant them with new ones and put a lot of soil over the top of it?
The problem with digging down is it really only goes down as far as the brick so it’s ++ shallow.
Leave it alone. The surviving laurel tou have will take over all that room shortly. You can pull the dead ones out and just stab a few cuttings from the surviving laurels into the ground. Put mulch down on top of the soil to retain moisture (Woodchip or bark). Planted in a shallow bed with surrounding concrete is too dry for plants while thwy are getting eatablished.