Looking at an ordinary fence, no matter how beautiful it may be, is a rather dubious pleasure. In order to make it look more attractive, it is decorated in a variety of ways, among which the most effective is the creation of a green hedge. It allows you not only to close from annoying prying eyes, but also creates protection from the sun, prevents dust from penetrating the site, and reduces noise from the roads. In addition, the aesthetically designed hedge looks very unusual, interesting and extravagant. When choosing plants and creating a design, you can dream up, reveal creative possibilities and surprise others with an exclusive planting.
Setting up a living green hedge
A living green hedge (photo can be seen in the article) is a close planting of shrubs or trees, giving the impression of a wall. Plantations can be free growing(natural) or sheared, deciduous or coniferous, soft or prickly, multi-row or single-row, combined or created from plants and shrubs of the same species (depending on the tasks).
The height of the green hedge can be high - 150 cm and above, medium from 50 cm to 150 cm and low - up to 50 cm.
When forming such a living wall, support poles, mesh or borders can be additionally used.
The easiest option for planting is to dig a trench along the intended line, the shape of which can be zigzag, straight or angular. Planting width depends on the selected types of greenery.
When choosing plants, it is important to take into account the degree of illumination, the level of groundwater, soil fertility and other indicators.
Advantages and disadvantages of green hedges
Planting a green hedge is a great alternative to a traditional wood, concrete or stone fence. Such a fence will perform not only a protective, but also a healing and aesthetic function. A living green hedge will not only hide the site and the house from prying eyes, delight the owners with its appearance, but also play a healing role, since much more oxygen will be released, and the air will be saturated with various useful essential oils. In addition, such a barrier traps dust, reduces road noise, and protects from the scorching sun.
In addition to the advantages, the fence is a green hedgehas certain disadvantages:
- this design requires care (watering, fertilizing, haircuts);
- this is not a reliable enough barrier to unauthorized entry;
- near the root part of plantings there is access for the passage of animals;
- For the fence, it is important to carefully select plants.
Low hedges
A low green hedge is also called a curb. Such a decorative fence can reach a height of up to 0.5 m. It is most often used to decorate paths, flower beds, flower beds, playgrounds, designate zones on a plot, etc. They form a low hedge from slow-growing, undersized and low-cut plant species. For hedges of small height curbs fit:
- dwarf forms of garden jasmine;
- evergreen stunted boxwoods and euonymus;
- erica;
- mountain pine Pug;
- holly magnolia,
- cotoneaster and barberry;
- western thuja;
- columnar juniper.
If the green hedge (border) is planned to be free-growing, you can plant:
- roses;
- rosehip;
- Potentilla shrub and Dahurian;
- Bumald's spirea (Niponian or Japanese);
- Lawson's cypress.
Only some of the possible options are provided here. These cultures form a dense wall of flowers and leaves. Caring for them is relatively easy. Before making the final choice, it is imperative to clarify the zoning of the selected plant andfeatures of its cultivation.
If a green hedge will grow near the house and it will be provided with more thorough care, then in this case it is possible to select crops from more capricious varieties. In the country, it is definitely better to plant unpretentious plants.
Mid-height green hedges
If you need a fence of plants whose height is up to 1.5 m, then they are already talking about a fence. Flowering and fruiting shrubs and some types of trees can be used here. If such a green hedge in the country house performs protective functions, it can also include thorny shrubs, such as barberry, tall roses, wild rose, dogwood. In addition to the plants already listed, they are often planted without pruning:
- flowering crops - mock orange, lilac, forsythia, hydrangea, hawthorn, yellow acacia, derain;
- fruit bearing - dogwood, hazel, honeysuckle (common, blue, Tatar), golden currant, bright red pyracanthus;
- with dense foliage - euonymus, privet, cotoneaster, evergreen boxwood, Vangutta spirea;
- coniferous plants - western thuja, Canadian spruce, green, blue, Siberian fir, juniper, yew berry.
Green fence in the country is very often used only to mask the main fence or to complement it. In these cases, the fence surface can be used as a plant support.
High hedges - living walls
For tall greenshedges that exceed 1.5 meters in height are usually used by plants, although some types of tall shrubs may well grow to 2 meters or more:
- fruit trees and berry bushes - cherry plum, berry apple tree, irga (spicy-flowered, Tatar), viburnum, buckthorn;
- deciduous crops - pedunculate oak, small-leaved linden, maple.
- flowering plants - tall varieties of lilac, mock orange, honeysuckle;
- conifers and evergreens - fir, spruce, yew, thuja, juniper (medium, columnar, Chinese), pea cypress, evergreen boxwood (high grades).
Green hedge of evergreens is very popular today. So, for example, thuja is an evergreen and unpretentious plant that pleases with its rich color all year round. A green hedge from a thuja can reach a height of up to 20 m. It is used not only to make simple fences, but also to give trees a variety of shapes: balls, arches, sculptures, etc.
Fast growing green hedge plants
Green hedge of plants looks very nice, but it can take years to form a full-fledged fence. Coniferous crops grow especially slowly and for a long time. For example, it takes about 5 years for the thuja to grow to 1.5 m in height, and the yew berry will need 8 years in general, but they will be able to please the eye throughout the year. Some of the shrubs grow more than others in a year - from 0.5 to 1 m. It is they who are used to quickly form a green fence. You can plant a green hedge from the following plants:
- Siberian hawthorn with yellow flowers (grows up to 1 m per year);
- rose hips, blackberries, climbing roses (support required);
- shrub willows;
- califolia vesicle (shoots under favorable conditions can grow up to 1 m);
- sprawling hazel (grows up to a meter or more in a year);
- deren.
Green hedge planting and maintenance
Making a green hedge with your own hands is not difficult at all.
The creation of any green fence begins with the selection of plants. When choosing, it is important to pay attention that they should all have the same age. Only in this way is it possible to form an even line. If deciduous plants are chosen for the green hedge, the age of the seedlings can be two to three years, if it is coniferous - three to six years. If it is planned to plant plantations in a shaded area, then the age of the seedlings is greater - up to 6-8 years. Under these conditions, they grow quite slowly, and older plants will immediately give some form.
| Hedge type | Row spacing (in meters) | Distance between plants (m) |
| High sheared (from 1.5 to 6 m and above) | 1 | 0, 8 - 1, 2 |
| Sheared medium (0.5-1.5m) | 0, 8 - 1 | 0, 4 - 0, 6 |
| Free growing high (1.5-5m and above) | 2 - 3 | 1 - 2 |
| Free growing medium (0.5 to 1.5m) | 1 - 1, 5 | 0, 8 - 1 |
Planting distances
Planting seedlings in the middle lane and closer to the north begins in the spring, in the southern regions you can plant plants in the fall. Planting work begins with the formation of trenches.
- Trenches (depth 50-60 cm) are dug according to the markings.
- A fertile soil layer of suitable composition is being poured.
- Seedlings are laid out at the required distance (see table above).
- In order for the seedlings to take root well, the existing earth ball does not need to be broken. The soil is poured around the root system and compacted well.
- Immediately after planting, the plants are watered abundantly and sprinkled with mulch to preserve moisture - humus, peat, crushed bark.
Further care the first year consists of regular watering, loosening the soil, periodic fertilization, weed removal. A complete list of necessary measures is prescribed in the recommendations for caring for a particular type of crop.
Hedges may need pruning in the fall. Even if crops are free-growing, green fencing still needs to be formed. He does not need to be given the correct shape, but trimming is required, as well as for sheared.
Features of pruning an unshaped green hedge
As mentioned above, even a free-growing green hedge (photo attached toarticle) requires trimming. The first of them is carried out immediately after planting the seedling. This contributes to the formation of powerful side shoots, and by autumn the shrub becomes more branched. The second pruning is carried out in the fall. Within 3-4 years, the bushes are cut short enough until the density of shoots is sufficient.
One of the effective ways is to prune plants using the coppice culture method. It uses the ability of deciduous green shrubs to activate basal dormant buds.
When planting, thin and weak shoots are cut off almost completely, and the strongest ones are shortened to the very first strong bud. Closer to autumn, new shoots will appear from the root.
When the sap flow stops, all shoots must be cut low, leaving only short stumps. Over the next year, the shrub will become denser, new shoots will appear from the root, and 2-3 powerful branches will go from the old ones.
For 3-6 years, pruning is carried out according to the same principle, only the branches are cut 3-4 cm higher than in the previous year. In the future, pruning is also made strong, but only 3/4 of the length is cut off. This method is good for shrubs that form flower buds at the ends of young shoots.
Using this principle, you can quickly form a dense green hedge from undersized border plants, as well as from such medium-sized crops as:
- wrinkled rose;
- Potentilla shrub;
- rowanberry;
- panicle hydrangea;
- decorative varieties of white turf.
The disadvantage of this method is that it strongly activates the formation of root shoots. At the same time, the most aggressive varieties can give abundant shoots a few meters from the bush itself. Therefore, it is recommended to limit the root zone even when planting by digging in a sheet of metal, asbestos or plastic for this.
Hedge trimming
Many of the beginner gardeners believe that it is necessary to form a hedge only after it has grown. But you can wait a year or two only with coniferous crops, you need to cut deciduous crops immediately after planting, and then in the fall, otherwise, with free chaotic growth in 2-3 years, it will be either quite difficult or completely impossible to do something with the plant.
Before you start molding, you must initially decide on the form. Please note that a green fence (hedge) with a straight top must be cut very often, as it loses its decorative effect. And because the most active growth is in the upper zone, here, first of all, the ideality of the lines is violated. On the side surfaces at this time they are still normal. If there is no possibility or desire to carry out a regular haircut, you can choose a shape with a triangular or rounded upper part. So even if you miss the cutting time, the plants look normal.
In the first year of life, all shoots should be shortened to a considerable height. If these are seedlings that are sold in bundles with a bare root, you can cut themhalf the length. If container plants - cut to 1/3 of the height or not cut at all.
Strong pruning stimulates the formation of new shoots, so by the end of summer the bushes become much thicker.
The next step is to form the skeleton itself.
If you look inside an already formed hedge, you can see a very powerful frame, consisting of bare shoots. From them comes a lot of young, with abundant foliage. This is the frame that should be formed. Moreover, it must be quite thick so that the resulting surface is opaque and dense. This process starts the next year after planting, and continues for two to three years. During this period, pruning can be carried out up to 4-5 times per season. The main task is to achieve the necessary density of the emerging "skeleton". The green fence (hedge) is cut to the selected shape. Here is an example of the formation of a framework.
This trimming should be followed for any final shape, only lowering or raising the top of the triangle (it depends on how narrow and long the fence is planned). If it is wide, the top drops a little, if high and narrow is needed, then it is raised, while the base is made narrower. Every year, pruning is done a little higher by about 3-4 cm. As a result, new shoots begin to actively germinate, and on those that have already been, new forks form, skeletal branches become moremore branched. After the desired density of shoots is reached, they start forcing in height. This is the third stage. It is on it that the cutting height is more actively raised - by almost 5-10 cm at a time. At the same time, shoots growing strongly upwards are cut off until the required density of lateral shoots is obtained. Filling the hedge with leaves should be dense. Subject to the condition that pruning is performed several times during the season, growth is quite active. There is a simultaneous formation of new shoots, but, as a rule, there are not as many of them as before.
Pruning frequency is determined depending on the type of plant, for example:
- hawthorn and plum are cut three to four times from May to October;
- thuyu, cotoneaster, juniper, barberry, snowberry once in summer (in July or August) and once in autumn (in October).
Cutting should be carried out in such a way that side filling is also formed along with the hood upwards. So that there are no gaps, it is desirable to “raise” the bush more slowly. In the future, it will be much more difficult to fix.
At the final stage, the desired shape is given. In the future, a regular haircut is already carried out, which maintains the shape.
For this type of green hedges in our conditions is great:
- Ottawa barberry;
- teren;
- snowberry white;
- cotoneaster brilliant;
- blood red hawthorn.
Green willow hedge
Today, green bush fences are not uncommon, but the original and hedge, created from willow, which will not require special care, is no less a good option. This is a very beautiful tree that attracts attention with graceful flowing flexible branches that can be woven and shaped into a pattern, tunnel or wall at will.
You can create a very special hedge from willow by weaving freshly cut branches and simply burying them in the ground. Such a landing is accepted with a high probability. If desired, the branches can even be stuck from both ends, forming a kind of arc. The willow will put out roots from both ends at the same time. To speed up the process, the top of the shoot is cut off, the bark is cut lengthwise in two places by several centimeters. The shoot prepared in this way is buried in the soil.
Using this feature, a green fence (hedge) in the country can be woven from willow, which will turn green in a few weeks. To do this, prepare the shoots and deepen them by about 15 cm, the soil around them is thoroughly compressed, then the planting is watered abundantly. In order for everything to look more attractive, that is, the dried ends of the branches do not stick out, it is better to bend the rods. At the intersection, they can be tied or intertwined. If the twigs are too thin and weak, you can use two at a time, and also periodically put props that will support the wattle fence.
The main disadvantage of such a hedge is that it will only have a decorative look for a few years. Thenthe shoots will become woody, and the greenery will almost disappear. But at the same time, the fence will not become less reliable, but, on the contrary, it is not so easy to break through such a solid wall - the branches are woven very tightly.
There are many varieties of willow, in nature there are close to 600 names. Each variety differs in the shape and color of the leaves, the height and structure of the crown. Each species has its own name.
A live fence in a few weeks
If you wait for shrubs and trees to grow for a long time, then herbaceous plants give abundant dense greenery after 2 weeks. This is exactly what you can use if you need to quickly make a green fence (hedge) in the country (the photo can be seen above), decorate a completely unsightly wall or a part of the fence that is in plain sight. To do this, a wooden lattice is made, and square containers are inserted sideways into it, in which plants are planted. So that the soil does not fall out of them, the containers must be closed with black agrofibre. A small hole should be made in it, into which the planted plant will look out. With good lighting and sufficient watering, the wall or fence will very soon become green and shaggy. If you wish, you can lay out living pictures in this way, using plants with foliage of different colors for this.
So, a green hedge created by your own hands will become a true decoration of the site and will delight and bring satisfaction for many years.
