KILDARE GARDENING COLUMN: Choosing the perfect hedge for your site

It's been a truly momentous week — Caragh Nurseries UK launched — granted it was a soft launch, more of a squeal than a bellow, as we are ensuring all the systems and processes are in place.

This means we can hit the ground running for the bare-root and rootballed season which kicks off in October.

With the distractions that they have had over the water in the last couple of weeks, we thought that it was a great time to get everything set up and ready, but have the website and social media all ready to go when those distractions start to subside.

Talking of our next season, we are busy preparing for the new season, Marie in particular, who heads up our production team is full on preparing and making the most of the last season growth before we start lifting.

We are already full into hedging season and we are currently having a sale on the potted crops to make room for next seasons crops that will be starting in no time.

A hedge is a perfect place to start when planning a garden. Boundary hedging marks your property, gives you just that, a boundary and says this is our home.

The point being — it has the extra time to grow and mature, so you don’t need to put in huge hedging plants while you plan the remainder of the garden.

Hedging plants are another thing we get asked about on a very regular basis — what hedge gives privacy, but doesn’t need much maintenance, and won’t cost a fortune.

To be honest all those things are contradictory, because if a hedge gives you the best privacy at the least cost, then its fast growing so it will need more cutting to keep it at the height you are looking for.

The cheapest evergreen option is usually common laurel, its grows fast, gives great privacy but the cons are that it can grow very wide, taking up space in your garden and does need cutting twice annually to keep it in shape.

Portuguese laurel is easier to maintain, but doesn’t grow as fast so it tends to be more expensive.

Beech hedging is one of my favourites, it is the least expensive of the household hedges, but it is very slow growing, semi-deciduous and you need some patience with it.

But if you are starting a build process, getting that in at the very early stages is a great idea, giving you a real head start.

However, don’t forget it will lose most of its leaves the first year and then unless you are in a windy or wet site, in which case choose something hardier, it will retain a good percentage of its copper leaves through subsequent autumn/winters.

Laurel provides a dense, glossy, dark green evergreen hedge, which can provide instant screening all year round.

Growing up to two feet per year, it is deal for planting in an area where permanent privacy or screening is required.

A lesser know species, that is equally good for screening and year round privacy is the Thuja.

Similar looking to Leylandii but a little neater and and almost as fast growing, Thuja have thick, olive green foliage that creates a dense privacy screen.

The foliage has a pleasant, fruity fragrance when the leaves are brushed against. Unlike Leylandii, Thuja can be cut back into old wood and will still re-shoot. They are also easier to control.

A Thuja hedge is easy to grow and is tolerant of most conditions. Thuja can withstand strong winds and low temperatures and only need to be trimmed once a year.

They will grow equally well in full sunshine as in shadier spots. Thuja are a much lower maintenance plant that Leylandii and an excellent choice for a fast growing formal hedge or tall screen.

Although Thuja plants will tolerate most soil types, it is advisable to mix the soil with compost when planting, to ensure that they have the best environment to grow in for their first year.

After planting, a Thuja hedge should be watered regularly during its first year to give it the best chance of survival. This is particularly important if the hedge is being planted in the drier summer months.

Once the hedging is planted then you can get on with some trees for maturity, lawns and then you can look at all the lovely stone materials, ponds and pools and beautiful planting.

Next week we will be focusing on design, what makes good design and why its the most cost effective route for a beautiful garden.