Laurel Hedging

1.Success rate with Laurel bare rooted is good. suggest plant a few in a clump to fill in any failures that you see next year..
2. Laurel don,t require intensive planting , stuff them in .
3. Get them planted this month if possible , otherwise use (expensive) potted ones.
4. Laurel hedges are one of the easier to trim and take abuse .
 
i planted eleagnus and beech quite recently , the garden centre where i bought them gave me some unusual advice , now i dont know if these people are green party members or what but they claimed that they never use any farmyard manure when planting hedges , that you risk burning the plants and that its better to let them establish naturally even it takes a little longer , they did however say to use some fish meal in the spring and around august , i used farmyard manure to plant the beech as they were bareroot but decided to plant the eleagnus without any farmyard manure as the soil is better in this location anyway

do you think the eleagnus will die ?

are these gardners mad ?

ps

beech were bare root

eleagnus are potted
 
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The practice going back to the 1960/70 was to put a layer of soil between the farmyard manure and the roots the fear was the farmyard manure would cause new plants to grow fast making them soft hard frost would then burn them , The layer of soil was so they would get establish before the farmyard manure kicked in beech go back in the winter time so i don't think you will have any problem,I have seen people cover plants in late spring to get over this problem,
I planted eleagnus years ago the ones in the shade were ok one section which wes open and windy they failed I planted laurel in there place,
 
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this lady told me eleagnus is better for withstanding windy conditions than laurell
 
RETIRED2017 said:
That not how it worked for me I would cross check if I was you,
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they are inside a low garden wall anyway so should have enough shelter , site is windy however overall , when you say cover plants with farmyard manure in the spring , do you mean just place a bit of manure around them , ive done that in the past with large potted pla

well i planted the potted eleagnus without any farmyard manure , planted the beach which were bare root with farmyard manure

not sure why this gardener was against farm yard manure , they were a tad eccentric

would spreading some rotted farmyard manure over them at this stage be any use ? , would it absorb down through or just grow a heap of weeds ? , planted three weeks ago
 
If the Eleagnus fail I would re plant with Laural on a windy site,
 

the gardener obviously wanted to shift the eleagnus , told them i was on a windy site and they insisted eleagnus was more hardy to withstanding wind than laurell

il poke the rotted manure down into the soil along the plants
 
SWEENHOG said:
Oh sorry didn't realise it was Windy!! didnt see that... For sure, your 100% Right laurel on windy site would of been ideal!!

in fairness its ideal in most locations, and by adding things like manure to it, you can help it greatly in any location
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the site is very windy but the eleagnus are planted inside a garden wall which is three foot high , perhaps this will be enough to protect the eleagnus , we dont need it to grow very high anyway , its just to blind out the wall which is sort of agricultural looking

i went over to the centre meaning to buy laurell along with the beech , i do like the look of the eleagnus though , laurell is a bit bland IMO
 
when you trim them back to keep then just above the wall the look the same ,
 
I'd go potted if at all possible, failures can be a heartbreaker when you're waiting for your hedge to grow into the nice green wall you're waiting for - When plants do fail the replacement plant can struggle to establish when competing with its two adjacent competing neighbors which are of course taller, (shading), stronger and have better root systems etc. I went with potted and still had 2 fail - The substitutes are still only at 50% height a year later despite me trying to bring them on which leads to annoying gaps.

I know your bills will mount - I'd ring every garden centre within an hour or so and make sure you tell them the amount your buying and they'll most likely discount further to get your business. (PS bear in mind the work they've gone to to root, pot and bring these plants to this stage - they're relatively cheap when you consider their outlay and effort in fairness!)

Go to your local co-op and get a bag of potato fertilizer (~€25 for 50KGs!) - Its a brilliantly cost-effective way to treat your entire garden every spring. I just go around with a bucket scattering everywhere that would appreciate a little boost - Grass, fruit trees/bushes, flower beds, shrubs, hedges etc.

Get a good quality soaker hose (membrane rubber type not cheap plastic with holes which are crap and noisy) - These will quietly ooze water into your new hedges roots with zero effort on your part - I had one laid permanently under each hedge with splitters on the main feed from hose.

Most importantly find out how to prune these at the right time and don't be afraid to follow through fully - It'll seem like the worst thing in the world to cut back some of your new growth - BUT you actually cause explosive growth by doing this - AFAIR the plant goes into overdrive and over compensates by sending out many, many more new shoots in an effort to recover. This give you a nice thick hedge as opposed to a tall scraggly, see-through scrawny one.....

PS Grisilinia (or however its spelled) died in huge numbers in the really cold winters a few years back - I know of a lot of people including a near neighbor who had 8 foot hedges die to nothing and had to start building walls, replanting from scratch - I would never risk it......
 
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3ftx3ft laurel root ball advertised on done deal for 12 euro. Look nice and bushy.
 
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