The Rural Voice, 2006-05, Page 42(- ?F "..��" Rhea
Hamilton -
Seeger and
her husband
live near
Auburn. She
is a skilled
cook and
gardener.
By Rhea Hamilton -Seeger
Long before I ever read the story of
The Secret Garden my idea of a perfect
garden always included the sweeping
protection of a cedar hedge or a
backdrop of a sturdy stone wall. I must
admit that every spring I look around
trying to picture where I would put my
hedge if I were to be so bold. But alas I
have chopped up our yard with
comfortable groupings of larch,
evergreens, and. what I call, wonderful
specimen plantings of cherry, chestnut
arid locust. Specimen sounds so
thoughtful, I should admit they came by
volunteering themselves in the yard of
one who will let anything grow for the
first 20 years before deciding if it
should stay. Any planting of hedges in
the open spaces left around here would
only cause snow to be trapped along the
laneway. Too much work.
Naturally everything around here
gets free rein until they hit my husband
in the head while cutting grass and then
the nippers come out. I think of myself
as a timid pruner but once on a roll I
can trim and cut out a shrub with the
best of them.
So I was a little hesitant to offer any
advice to a friend of mine who has
decided that this year's garden project
will be to trim his magnificent hedge.
Now.' don't think he calls it that. In
fact I know he doesn't. He•sees it as a
natural privacy fence and a voracious
nutrient moocher to the rest of the
garden which fills the yard. When I
first saw his garden a couple of years
ago I was in heaven. It was everything I
ever wanted. Full perennials growing
luxuriously protected on all three sides
by a I2 -foot cedar hedge. Huge. Lush,
Evergreen. Full of birds. And the bonus
is that it fully surrounds the backyard
creating a• perfect oasis. So you can
imagine my horror when he announced
he needed to lop off a few feet of
hedge. Oh if 1 could only transplant it.
38 THE RURAL VOICE
Gardening
The secret to good hedges
• So the challenge is to encourage the
growth and enhance the beauty of this
cedar hedge.
So I did a bit of reading. Where I
learned to garden as a child there was a
cedar hedge that protected the property
across the front from the highway
traffic. down one side of the property
between the pasture and the house and
where the hedge came even with the
front of the house it jutted away to
encircle a wonderful garden seen only
from the house. Every year or two it
was trimmed back a foot or so and the
sides were nipped back too. Dad stood
on a ladder on the farm wagon to do the
trimming. A few loads of old manure or
compost was heaped underneath where
little else grew.
Aside from the romance of hedges.
they serve the wonderful purpose of
hiding eyesores like the neighbour's
woodpile and trailer or offer a
windbreak for your home or summer
seating area.
In our area of Ontario. cedars make
the best hedge as they grow thick and
stay green all year.
When starting out. cedar hedges
need attention to shape them to stay
looking good. The sides should be
sloped wider at the bottom than the top.
This allows the sunlight to the bottom
area and keeps it healthy as well as
helping shed snow in winter. You can
use hedge trimmers for a light trim only
if they are sharp. There is nothing I hate
more than seeing evergreens ripped
along their edges. It just makes it
harder for them to heal over•which
leads to brown areas and allows for
disease to settle in.
Renovating a•hedge that has become
straggly or bare at the base takes a
couple of years. Start in the early
spring, cut plants hard down one side.
Prune the other side as normal. Trim
the top back to about 15 cm (or to my
eye six inches) less than the eventual
height for the hedge, then apply a feed.
The following spring, trim the new
shoots and cut the other side of the
hedge back hard. The next year you
should see healthy new growth all over
and the hedge can be lightly trimmed as
usual.
Fertilizer is another essential
element for a beautiful hedge. The
shallow fibrous root system of the
cedar is like an alien when it starts
invading the perennial border. The only
way to keep everyone happy is to
fertilize. If left to its own devices the
cedar hedge would take over all the
nutrients and starve out the perennials
planted nearby. Since they are shallow
rooted you can apply a fertilizer to the
surface •of the soil. Apply early in the
spring to feed the first flush of growth
and again later in the summer when you
see more new growth. Don't leave it
until too late as you will encourage
more growth than necessary and it will
he too tender for the harsh winter.
Not all hedges are cedar. Tapestry
hedges are, a blend of foliage and
flowering shrubs. Little pruning is
required and it provides a great spot for
birds and small creatures. Use a simple
plan of two or three different plants that
share the same soil and water
requirements. For foliage. mix red and
green -leafed versions of the same plant
such as the ninebark. For birds you
could try a shrubby grey dogwood with
winterberry holly and highbush
cranberry. Remember not to plant too
close together for they will grow
quickly to form a solid hedge.
Like evergreen hedges. rejuvenating
shrubs is done with a drastic chop back
to 12 inches in March before the sap
runs. I just about panicked when I
chopped back a sprawling mock
orange. It was one of three that were
loaded with deadwood. So on the
advice of a horticulturist friend 1
marched out one cold spring day and
lopped off everything to 12 inches and
hoped for the best. It took two years
before it bloomed again but it was well
worth it with the new, cleaned -up
look. And it has been much easier
to keep tidy with all the deadwood
gone.
There are hedges that don't require
trimming and are merely single or
double staggered rows of your favourite
trees or shrubs. You can plant a row of
young evergreens like spruce spaced far
enough apart so that they will overlap
slightly when mature. In front of them
you can add a second row of fast
growing plants like ornamental shrubs
or large grasses. When the trees are
large enough you can easily move
or remove the second row and and
enjoy your magnificent hedge.0