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Hedging Your Bets - or Your Property

Koller started off by explaining that hedges were originally built to confine animals - or to keep them out of places where crops were grown. Since then, hedges have been used to delineate property boundaries, as a backdrop for sculpture or plants, and as a way to keep the neighbors from seeing you in your gardening clothes - or lack thereof.

Hedges can be grown using almost any plant material that survives our winters - even those that die back to the ground each fall. For most of us, the important thing is that they look good, be affordable and grow relatively quickly. Your ultimate goal will determine what sort of you plants you should use.

If you want a tall hedge to screen an eyesore or provide privacy, you should select an evergreen hedge. Canadian hemlock if good for that - it grows fast and will grow close together. Yew is also good, but generally is pruned to stay lower and deer love to prune it for you. Boxwood and privet are traditional hedges, but privet (a deciduous shrub) is now considered an invasive plant in many places and discouraged or prohibited.

When planting a shrub or tree for hedging, Koller explained, you should start with very small plants, plant them close together, prune early and hard. By pruning early and hard you encourage good branching down low, so you don't end up with a gawky hedge with few branches and leaves near the ground. He said you need to prune your hedge one to three times each summer, even when they are small - to encourage branching and maintain a thick hedge. If you don't prune every year, your hedge will have thick, stubby branches when you cut it back instead of small, feathery branches. And some, like hemlocks, can get too tall quite quickly.

Cost is an issue with hedges. Ideally you can use plant material that you own and can divide and use for free. Many states have programs through the National Conservation Service that the sell bare root woody plants cheaply in bundles of ten. Another solution to the cost problem is to use plants that you can easily root. I've rooted willow twigs by just sticking them in the ground and keeping the soil moist.

According to what I've read, other good candidates for rooting include elder, flowering quince, forsythia, lilac, mock orange, rugosa rose, spirea, viburnums and witch hazel. You may need to root them in potting soil or use rooting hormones. I will try some of these this summer and report back - and you can, too. Let me know what you try.

In order to keep a hedge looking good, you need to taper it slightly so that the top is narrower than the bottom. That better allows the lower branches to get sunlight. Creative pruning of hedges can create dramatic results. There is no reason why a flat and "boring" hedge can not be pruned to different heights to create a wave of green mimicking a distant view, or shaped to have a pointy top or be shaped like a dome - or a gnome. And you can trim a hedge to different heights at different places to open up a view - or hide the abandoned car on the neighbor's property.

In addition to the usual hedge plants, edible hedges can be made from rhubarb, asparagus, or blueberries. Decorative grasses can be used - or even golden rod! I once divided and moved several large peonies for a client who was re-doing a garden. I divided them into 50 plants and spaced them so that, when mature, the foliage would mingle, creating a single row of plants that was drop-dead gorgeous in June. It's not a hedge that provides privacy, but it is wonderful in bloom and it sets off their lawn from the neighbor's lawn.

Lastly, you can make a hedge by installing a fence and growing vines on it. Evergreen euonymus (Euonymus fortunei) is an evergreen variegated-leafed vine that will grow in shade and is quite vigorous. English ivy, Virginia creeper, or even grapes can be used. When they mature, the fence disappears, and you have a wall of green. Most vines will start easily from cuttings.

One last word of caution: if you are using a hedge as a separation of your property from a neighbor's, remember that the neighbor should be consulted, as they will have to trim their side of the hedge. Or, better yet, plant it far enough back from the property line so that you can trim both sides without stepping off your own property.

Your hedge probably won't serve to keep out hungry animals - deer are really the only ones you have to worry about in most neighborhoods, and anything less than 8 feet is just an easy leap for all but oldest, most arthritic deer. Still, it will keep out neighborhood ruffians, particularly if the plants have thorns.

Henry Homeyer is the author of three gardening books. Visit his web site, www.Gardening-Guy.com or write him at P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.