The hedgerow

Playing an exceptional role in plant and animal biodiversity, the hedgerow, which fell into disuse at the end of the last century, is making a strong comeback in farming practices. A complex ecosystem, it plays a protective role for the soil, crops and livestock but also has an ornamental function.

What is a hedgerow?

A hedge is a hedge composed of several species of trees and shrubs arranged in differentiated layers. Generally, it is made up of local, indigenous plants, which grow without worry and are adapted to both the climate and the soil of the region. In the past, this hedge served as a property boundary between cultivated plots and as a natural fence for livestock. This type of hedge was the basis of the famous bocages that shaped the landscape in many regions, providing firewood and delimiting plots so beautifully.

The great economic projects of intensive reparcelling between 1960 and 1980 were the reason of this so particular landscape, leaving place to the green deserts of the intensive agriculture and all the problems which are linked to them.

Composition of a hedgerow

This very diversified hedge includes a tree part with high trees (ash, beech, rowan, oak...), a shrub zone composed of bushes and shrubs such as hawthorn, viburnum, broom, holly, fusain, blackthorn or bramble, and a herbaceous zone at its foot with local plants growing spontaneously such as mallow, poppy, vulpine or clover. This plant diversity offers numerous shelters to a very varied and useful fauna. In the tree layer, birds (including birds of prey) watch over the crops, capturing parasitic insects, but also rodents and other small mammals. The tall trees are sometimes replaced or associated with trees in the form of a hedge such as hornbeam, alder, white willow or wild apple.

The shrub layer shelters a very varied fauna, birds but also insects and mammals; it often serves as a nesting area. Flowering over a long period of time and providing a variety of berries for many months, it is a choice larder for wildlife that is attracted en masse.

The herbaceous zone attracts pollinating insects, but also serves as a breeding area and biological corridor for animal movement, especially in agricultural areas. The wider the strip, the more beneficial animals will be present.

Often the herbaceous zone is located at the foot of a slope, a very common feature in bocages. The embankment compensates for certain effects of the wind and modulates them. It also has the function of slowing down the flow of rainwater and limiting the erosion of the land.

Further down, at the base of the slope, a ditch is often built to stop the progression of tree roots on the surface (which would compete with the crops) and encourage their vertical rooting. It serves as a drainage and storage area for rainwater and is often home to a wide variety of batrachians, insects and reptiles.

Interests of the plantation of a hedge bocagère

This type of very diversified hedge has many advantages on a technical, economic and environmental level.

Technical and economic advantages

• The hedge serves as a natural fence and requires little maintenance;
• It can be a source of firewood and work to be done on site (stakes, tool shed, gate ...);
• It provides a harvest of fruits and berries depending on the species planted;
• It protects from the wind;
• It has an undeniable aesthetic aspect in the landscape and constitutes an element of identity in certain regions.
• Leisure and educational activities are organized by tourism actors around the concept of the discovery of this form of development that are the hedgerows and the hedges that constitute them. Creation of hiking trails, mountain bike trails, horseback riding, bird and wildlife observation tours, but also discovery trails on the various typical pruning techniques (pollards, hornbeams, plessage...) attract many tourists in these rural areas.

Environmental benefits

• The hedgerow is a reservoir for both animal and plant biodiversity, it allows to recreate a balance between prey and predators. The crops protected by the auxiliaries are less subject to treatment products.
• It is a source of humus.
• This type of landscaping helps to fight effectively against soil erosion and nutrient leakage.
• Planted perpendicular to the slope, it favors water penetration in the soil.
• The slope plays an important role in draining and filtering water if it is overloaded with inputs. Pollutants such as phosphates and nitrates are thus fixed and transformed before they enter the water table.

Hedge trimming

There are many ways to trim a hedge depending on the desired effect and the plants that make up the hedge. Smaller hedges will be used to delimit specific areas of the garden, while larger, straighter hedges will be used as fences around a property. Regardless of the style, a hedge requires regular maintenance, let's see how to proceed.

Pruning Times

Spring is the best time to trim shrub hedges. Proceed at the very beginning of spring before the vegetation has started to grow.

We prefer to wait until July for the pruning of conifers in order to preserve the beautiful colors of the new spring shoots. For the more fastidious, lovers of straight lines, green pruning should be done in three stages: at the end of April, at the end of June and at the end of August. This will ensure a clean and neat appearance.

How to proceed?

1- pruning an open hedge

An open hedge is composed of shrubs with decorative foliage or interesting flowers. They will be pruned in a lighter way using simple secateurs or a small saw, in order to remove the dead wood and the branches that cross. The goal is to clear the interior of the plant to let in light. This pruning can also be used to limit the height if necessary. Always try to keep a certain harmony and not to make holes in the whole.

2- Regular hedges

Interventions should be more frequent, every two to three months. For a successful hedge, plant two stakes on either side of the hedge and stretch a wire between them. Do not hesitate to adjust the height of the wire using a level on flat ground or a meter on sloping ground. Proceed in the same way for the pruning on both sides of the hedge.

Use hand shears if the length is less, motorized shears if the hedge is more important. The blade should be disinfected and sharpened beforehand. Then simply slide the shears along the wire used as a guide. Keep a light hand and do not press on the wire, as this would cause irregularities. Do not hesitate to prune frequently so that the hedge does not grow more than 10 cm per year.

To be dense, a hedge must be as wide as it is high, or even slightly wider at the bottom. It is possible, for more softness, to round the angles to create a more harmonious shape.

The various possible shapes

Here again, it's all a matter of taste and functionality:

• Rectangular: the hedge forms a real wall that doesn't let the light through, it protects from the eyes and from intrusions;
• Domed: the hedge is rounded at the top, the ideal solution to keep a natural look to the garden.
• Half sphere: mostly used on small shrubs to suggest shapes or delimit particular areas in the garden.
• Loose: to create a flowered wall at the bottom of the garden;
• Sculpted: reserved for virtuosos of the shears and for boxwood and yew hedges. All possibilities are then possible (volutes, windows, crenels and merlons ...)

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball', an alternative to boxwood

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball': a replacement for boxwood?

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' owes its name to its compact ball-like habit. Rather recent (it was found by a nurseryman about ten years ago), it is already a serious candidate to replace boxwood, which is susceptible to two diseases and one pest (the boxwood borer defoliator caterpillar).

To know: nurserymen are looking for plants that could replace boxwood. However, at the present time, there is no plant that can replace boxwood in all its uses and all its geographical zones.

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' is especially interesting in the southern half of France, to form small borders, but also balls.

The advantages

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball', like a number of other Pittosporums, is particularly resistant to drought. It has no known diseases or pests, and, as an added bonus, it can be pruned very well.

Pruning 

It can be pruned several times a year, depending on the needs, but avoid pruning in the middle of winter, when there is a risk of frost.

A small pruning in April, then a second one during the summer, allows to obtain a perfect ball.

Its small boxwood leaves

If in a very favorable situation (as in the nursery), Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' has a vigorous habit and 'big' leaves (1 cm long and 8 mm wide), rest assured: in the open ground, the habit will naturally be more compact, with finer leaves, similar to those of boxwood.

The propagation of Pittosporum 'Golf Ball

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' can be cuttings in September, but beware: it is a plant whose reproduction without the authorization of the New Zealand nurseryman is forbidden.

How to plant this pittosporum?

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' is a full sun shrub, possibly in partial shade. The soil should be normal or draining but not waterlogged in winter. In this case, plant it on a mound.

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' can also be grown in a pot, on a terrace, in a mixture of one third soil, one third quality potting soil and one third compost.

Care of Pittosporum 'Golf Ball

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' is a hardy plant. Therefore, it does not show any signs of weakness when it is thirsty. It is therefore necessary to check regularly that the soil remains fresh, but not waterlogged.

The benefits of a hedge

Evergreen, deciduous, flowering...

To know what we are talking about, and what type of tree we use to create a hedge, let's go back to some definitions.

An evergreen tree is a tree that keeps its leaves in winter. On the other hand, a deciduous tree loses its leaves in the fall. Flowering trees can belong to both categories, evergreen or deciduous.

Trees or shrubs?

It is also important to distinguish between trees and shrubs. Even on large plots of land, where there is room to install large hedgerows favorable to biodiversity, we mainly use shrubs, which are less cumbersome than trees.

A shrub can easily be more than 2, 3 or 4 meters high. Also, on the scale of a modest garden (500 to 1000 m2), we tend to use subjects of 1m to 1.50m, or that we will maintain at this size (in general, a maintenance pruning every 2 or 3 years is sufficient).

Diversity to encourage biodiversity

When planting a hedge, it is important to keep biodiversity in mind. This requires a diversity of planted shrubs. It is important to mix species and varieties, to have recourse to evergreens, deciduous and flowering plants, with flowering periods staggered throughout the year. Thanks to the plant diversity, we encourage animal diversity and therefore, the arrival of terrestrial and aerial auxiliaries.

The advantages of a plant hedge

• Contrary to a mineral hedge, the vegetal hedge brings coolness to the garden when it is hot.
• The leaves of deciduous shrubs nourish the soil and the biodiversity of the soil when they fall to the ground and decompose.
• It limits the effect of wind, erosion of sloping soils, etc.

A 'disadvantage': maintenance

The disadvantage of a vegetal hedge is that it requires a minimum of maintenance to benefit from all its advantages in the long term. Some shrubs require only one pruning per year, others every two or three years. From time to time, it will be necessary to intervene in a more drastic way, i.e. to cut back to let it grow back.

Bonus: pruning will allow you to have some firewood or to make some shelters for auxiliaries (for example, for a hedgehog), by making some piles that you will install under the hedge.

Berry hedges, a feeder and a shelter for birds

Have you considered a berry hedge? Decorative fruits bring color and shape to hedges in seasons when they have lost their flowers but also, and this is less known, provide cover for many animals.

A life-size feeder

A large part of the decorative fruits are very appreciated by birds. However, there is no need to fear that the hedge will be plundered overnight! On the contrary ... By choosing species whose fruit ripens at different times, you can create a long-lasting show that starts in August and ends in late February or early March, and you can create beautiful effects. Many fruits ripen very late (ivy, some apples) and the birds do not touch them until they have been softened by several successive frosts. Also, be aware that white or yellow fruits are shunned by birds until they have nothing else to eat!

Many "organic" gardeners will appreciate the extra food provided for the birds by the decorative fruiting shrub hedge. By keeping them in place around the garden, they will remain present in spring and summer to protect vegetables from caterpillars, roses from aphids and many other pests.

Shelter as well as cover

Thorny shrubs such as pyracantha or berberis protect birds from a number of predators such as cats, small carnivores or birds of prey. They are especially popular for nesting. The addition of evergreen species, such as hollies and mahonias, provides additional protection and allows the birds to find shelter in the hedge during the winter. Once they have both food and shelter, the birds will not stray from the garden and the sprayer can easily be dispensed with.

Some species to use ?

Pyracantha (Pyracantha talantoïdes)

Innumerable orange, red or yellow fruits on somewhat stiff stems with thorns. Alone or mixed with other shrubs, they form an impassable hedge. The white bloom in spring is also very decorative.

Height: 2,50m; spread, 2m.

Apple tree ' Golden Hornet' (Malus 'Golden Hornet')

Abundant mini golden flowers along the branches from August. Very decorative, they also make excellent jellies. Birds enjoy them from November. Height : 4m, spread : 3m.

Callicarpa ( Callicarpa bodinieri 'Profusion')

Very surprising with its purple fruits that the birds don't eat until they blacken from frost. Also interesting for its bright yellow foliage in autumn. Use sparingly, to break up the monotony. Height and spread: 1,50m.

European Fusain (Euonymus 'Red Cascade')

Curious bright pink fruits that open in quarters to reveal the orange bishop's cap seeds, all against a backdrop of beautiful red fall colors. Ideal in limestone soil. Height : 4m, width : 2,m.

Rough rose (Rosa rugosa)

Very large red fruits that look like cherry tomatoes follow the simple pink or white flowers. Its upright, compact, well-branched habit and strongly thorny stems make it an excellent defensive hedge shrub that can be integrated into a flowering hedge. Ideal for furnishing the base of the hedge. Especially continuous flowering cultivars such as 'F.J. Grootendorst' or 'Pink Grootendorst', which remain in bloom from mid-June until the first frost, should be chosen. The same applies to the new generation of so-called "landscape" roses such as the Meillandécor ® (Meilland), Clos Fleuri ® (Delbard) or Nirpaysage ® (Nirp) series, which offer the advantage of flowering from the base to the top of the plant and can be pruned with a simple shear. Height and spread: about 1,20m.

White Symphorine (Symphoricarpos albus)

Large, pure white fruits that look like cotillions, hanging from the end of young branches. Ideal at the base of the hedge to fill the space between taller shrubs. Grows well in the shade and in poor soil. Height: 1.20m, spread: 1.50m to 2m (suckers).

Mahonia ( Mahonia aquifolium)

Large compound evergreen leaves gathered in a crown around the branches. Intended for the first row of living hedges, because it hardly exceeds 1,50 m in height, this evergreen shrub with thorny leaves, takes a red tint at the end of the season. In March, large bunches of honey-scented yellow flowers are followed in August by clusters of beautiful blue fruits. Height and spread: 1,50m.

Holly (Ilex aquifolium 'Alaska')

This variety is self-fertile. It takes only one plant to produce an abundance of red fruits every year. The rather small leaves are more elegant than on other hollies. Height: 3m approximately (pruning well) spread: 1,20m.

Tree ivy (Hedera helix 'Arborescens')

We appreciate its evergreen foliage and its late flowers (green), which delight the bees in November. Its branches "climb" between the others to make the hedge persistent little by little. Height: up to 2 m, width: 1,50m.

Flowering hedges

You wish to create a hedge while having the wish to decorate your garden. For you, a cedar, cypress or laurel hedge rhymes with banality and austerity, so opt for a flowering hedge with shimmering colors that will surprise you with the colors of its dress throughout the seasons.

It is by mixing species, colors, heights and shapes that we give a decorative aspect to the garden which evolves during the seasons according to the flowering and the colors of the foliage.

Once you have defined the type of hedge you want to create, you now have to choose the varieties of your shrubs and their arrangement in order to obtain a harmonious variation in the colors of your hedge according to the seasons.

If necessary, you should choose evergreen species to isolate you from the eyes of your neighbors in winter as well as in summer. I am thinking in particular of the separating limits adjoining your terrace or having views on bay windows...

Varieties of flowering shrubs

Find a list of shrubs for flowering hedges.

The layout

To obtain a harmonious flowering hedge and enjoy an uninterrupted color palette throughout the year, make sure to:

• Choose a minimum of 3 different species. And for those who have more space, opt for 5 species: the final result will be even better.
• Arrange the species according to their flowering period.

Planting advice

Prepare the ground by spading it over 40 cm at the beginning of October to start planting at the beginning of November before the first frosts. If necessary, continue with the rest of your planting in early spring.

Additional arrangements

Embellish the base of your shrubs with few low branches with bulbs, low perennials,...