Ash trees and foundations

Does anyone have a photos of hedges they've planted that they could share with us......looking to plant bare root hedge this year and any guidance would be much appreciated.
 
Teagasc have some great information on hedge planting (including some poorly taken photos of hedges):

[broken link removed]

From a biodiversity point of view - put a nice mix in there of native trees/shrubs. Usually you plant a hedge in a double layer - a bit like the way a cavity wall actually is made up of two walls. Well a hedge is usually made up of two lines of trees. Plant the nice fruit bearing ones on the inner line - so you can pick the fruit/nuts and not the neighbours ;-)

I plant for food (fruit and nuts: hazel, blackcurrant, wild pear, crab apple), for aroma (rosa rugosa, honeysuckle), protection against animals breaking in (thorny bushes like hawthorn and blackthorn), autumn colour (mountain ash with its red berries, field maple for golden leaves). I mix them all up but plant them tight together in a double lined zig zag fashion.
 
Another useful teagasc document on choosing hedgerow species is:

[broken link removed]

Its good but it appears to show pictures of rhododendrons in there - please dont plant them as they take over whole forests and can never be eradicated.
 
As mentioned, silver birch is unsuitable as hedging as it doesn't respond to trimming into shapes. Birch is notorious for weeping badly when cut (i.e. sap continues to seep out of wounds long after the tree is cut which is unsightly at best and allows all sorts of disease and fungal infection to attack the plant at worst). It doesn't have the same branching characteristics as more suitable hedging specimens such as beech, hawthorn, hornbeam, holly etc.

The arguments I would make to the planner are as follow:

(a) mature plants are significantly more likely to die off when planted in hedging, resulting in gaps and holes which will never look right;

(b) the younger the hedging plants are when planted, the better the hedge they make as they establish quicker and 'knit together' much better. This will (with a little patience initially) lead to a far more satisfactory hedge from a screening point of view. Young hedges usually catch up with, and outpace, older hedges in a couple of years. The dense hedge you'll get from planting young plants will also be far better for wildlife than a patchy, weak hedge you'll get if you plant mature hedging;

(c) mature plants require expensive staking when planted as hedging, something 1-2 year old hedging plants do not. Mature plants also require vigilant, extensive watering for at least 12 months after planting, which again young plants (planted bare-root during winter) do not. Surely in this era when planners are trying to encourage environmentally responsible development wasting vast amounts of water on mature hedging for at least 12 months goes against all the planning guidelines?; and

(d) there's a recession on! Mature hedging is bloody expensive compared to younger plants - I planted a 3ft beech hedge where each plant cost I think €1.50 - the hedge has rocketed away and is topping 5ft at this stage, barely 18 months after planting.

I'm sure others can add more/better points so you can make an argument to the planner or, if necessary, appeal.
 
Sherman said:
As mentioned, silver birch is unsuitable as hedging as it doesn't respond to trimming into shapes. Birch is notorious for weeping badly when cut (i.e. sap continues to seep out of wounds long after the tree is cut which is unsightly at best and allows all sorts of disease and fungal infection to attack the plant at worst). It doesn't have the same branching characteristics as more suitable hedging specimens such as beech, hawthorn, hornbeam, holly etc.

The arguments I would make to the planner are as follow:

(a) mature plants are significantly more likely to die off when planted in hedging, resulting in gaps and holes which will never look right;

(b) the younger the hedging plants are when planted, the better the hedge they make as they establish quicker and 'knit together' much better. This will (with a little patience initially) lead to a far more satisfactory hedge from a screening point of view. Young hedges usually catch up with, and outpace, older hedges in a couple of years. The dense hedge you'll get from planting young plants will also be far better for wildlife than a patchy, weak hedge you'll get if you plant mature hedging;

(c) mature plants require expensive staking when planted as hedging, something 1-2 year old hedging plants do not. Mature plants also require vigilant, extensive watering for at least 12 months after planting, which again young plants (planted bare-root during winter) do not. Surely in this era when planners are trying to encourage environmentally responsible development wasting vast amounts of water on mature hedging for at least 12 months goes against all the planning guidelines?; and

(d) there's a recession on! Mature hedging is bloody expensive compared to younger plants - I planted a 3ft beech hedge where each plant cost I think €1.50 - the hedge has rocketed away and is topping 5ft at this stage, barely 18 months after planting.

I'm sure others can add more/better points so you can make an argument to the planner or, if necessary, appeal.
Click to expand...

You are dead right in everything you say here and, unlike the planner, talking complete, down to earth, common sense! Did I forget to mention that the conditions state "Any plant which fails in the first planting season to be replaced, Landscaping to be permenantly retained as part of this development."

It looks like spend momey on trees or build a house. It won't be easy!
 
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