Hedge (plant)

“ Our climate is dry, and most hedges do not thrive so well here as there; labor is high-priced, and the trimming is therefore likely to be neglected; our farms are so large that much fencing is required; timber and wire are cheaper than live hedges.
However, hedges are used with good effect about the home grounds. In order to secure a good ornamental hedge, it is necessary to have a thoroughly well-prepared deep soil, to set the plants close, and to shear them at least twice every year. For evergreen hedges the most serviceable plant in general is the arbor vitae. ”

“ A character of the ordinary plants growing in the hedges is the tendency they often have to form very long, straggly stems, which are too fine and weak to support themselves, but which are quite strong enough to grow up through the hedge and bear leaves, as they are partly held up by the other vegetation. ”

“ If the farmer plants a few trees so that he may one day eat an apple of his own growing and sit in the shade, he must build a wall eight or ten feet high to protect them from the salt blast, and he may then die of old age before the apple is ripe or the shade created. Nor can he grow a hedge: the furze, it is true, abounds everywhere, but it is a most intractable plant that will go (or grow) its own wild way, and no man has yet subdued it to his will and made it serve as a hedge. ”

“ Set in an even row where the hedge is desired, tie each plant to a stout stake, and allow only one branch to grow, cutting this back when three feet high to form the head, which should be made to branch freely. By the time the stake has rotted away the plant will have made a trunk as large as one’s wrist and perfectly self-supporting. All dead and weak branches should be trimmed out each year and the hedge kept pruned back to symmetrical growth. If the seed-pods are not allowed to form the plant will be in bloom nearly all summer. ”

“ When they reach that height, they grow by sending strong shoots out from the stems near the ground; and thus the hedge is ever growing thicker—another excellent feature. If pruned, they make a first-class hedge; if totally neglected, they are still protective. Plants three or four years old seed, so that in a few years, with moderate encouragement, plants in abundance could be obtained.
Besides its protective value, the plant has a very beautiful appearance. The under side of the leaf, as well as the young growing branches, are silvery ”

“ Mulch thoroughly in the fall, and thus protect from frost until they have been set in the hedge for three years, and they may succeed and make a good live fence. To raise the plants, soak the seeds thoroughly, and, at the usual time of corn-planting, plant in straight rows, and keep clean of weeds. Set out in hedge the following spring. The soil of the hedge-row should be deep, mellow, and moderately, not excessively rich. Too rich soil makes a larger growth, of spongy and more tender wood. Plants should have a portion of the tap-root cut off, and be planted a foot apart in the row. ”

“ When grown as a shrub no finer plant for a hedge could possibly be desired. For this purpose the plants should be set about three feet apart, or even closer, if it is desired that the hedge should be useful as well as ornamental. ”

“ These plants have some of the characters both of those grown in the dark and of climbing plants, because the thick-set hedge keeps off the light from the low-growing parts, so making them straggly, and at the same time gives them the support they need if they grow rapidly out into the light, and do not build strong stems. Very often you may find plants of the same species as those that grow so tall in the hedge, growing in the shorter turf away from it, and there only reaching their usual height. ”

“ In Southern gardens, Cypress made close, good garden hedges; and Cedar hedges fifty or sixty years old are seen. Lilac hedges were unsatisfactory, save in isolated cases, as the one at Indian Hill. The Japan Quinces, and other of the Japanese shrubs, were tried in hedges in the mid-century, with doubtful success as hedges, though they form lovely rows of flowering shrubs. Snowballs and Snowberries, Flowering Currant, Altheas, and Locust, all have been used for hedge-planting, so we certainly have tried faithfully enough to have hedges in America. ”

“ Unfortunately, except in a few localities, our climate does not encourage the perfect development of the choicest of the evergreen hedge-plants, and yet with time we can produce some moderately fine effects in hedges. We may not hope soon to rival the best of the foreign gardens that have been maturing through generations of continuous care. ”

“ The nut, guelder rose, and elder have none of the qualities for hedge growth that are required by the former; on the contrary, they have large leaves, and so smother the quicks if they grow with them, and when cut they shoot rapidly, especially in the case of the elder (Sambucus niger) , and so make a hedgerow look ragged by here and there growing a yard or so above the ordinary hedge-plants; but, besides this, the lower stems get free from leaves, and hence gaps are easily made in bushes of nut, dogwood, elder, &c. ”

“ Notice how different is the general appearance of the plants on the bleak side from that of those on the south. You may also find that some species which grow on the south side do not grow on the north at all, or only in far smaller numbers. It is quite worth while making out lists of all the plants you can find on one side and the other of the hedge if it is a big, well-established one, and comparing the numbers and condition of the two sets of plants.
Fig. 137. A, Dead Nettle which has grown up through the hedge. ”

“ In a short time new shoots will spring from the stubs and stems, making a dense growth of interlacing stems andPage 72 branches. Another method of laying a hedge, is to dig away a few inches of earth on one side of each plant to loosen the roots, then lay the plant over to the desired angle and fasten it there. The earth is then replaced around the roots, and tread down firmly. ”

“ The best plants comprise both evergreens and deciduous, but only one thing should be used, as mixed hedges are rarely a success, and of mingled evergreen and deciduous plants are generally quite a failure. It is right to mention, however, that if a mixed hedge is planted the best results are from White Thorn, Holly, and Common Beech. ”

“ NO MAN’S GARDEN
For a mile, alongside a bright high-road, runs a twelve-foot strip of grass and clover and buttercups, with cinquefoil’s golden embroidery in the turf at the edge. Little circular heaps of silver wood ash mark the cold fires of tramps, here and there. Here also they sleep in the sun, in summer and autumn, and in winter lean in the dense hedge that keeps the north wind away. The hedge is rich and high, of thorn overgrown by traveller’s joy and bryony; and at its feet, stitchwort, campions, vetchlings and bird’s-foot trefoil grow luxuriantly. ”

“ In some places where the moorland has been reclaimed and parcelled out into grass fields the furze flourishes on the stone hedges: the effect is here singular as well as magnificent, when, standing on a high stone wall, you survey the surrounding country with innumerable furze-clothed hedges dividing the green fields around you in every direction, and appearing like stupendous ropes of shining golden bloom. Hedge beyond hedge they stretch away for miles to grey distant hills and the pale blue sky beyond. ”

“ There is not a single hedge anywhere—no harbour for such plants as have not the stubbornness to live on in spite of plough, and pick, and spade, and hoe. Flowers there are—for flowers are obstinate and persist in coming—grape hyacinths, star of Bethlehem, lungwort, scarlet anemones, tulips, blue-bottles, cornflowers, salvia, and so on—because they dive out of reach of the spade and share, or because they do not object to having their tubers cut up they—rather like it. ”

“ It is hardy and of rapid growth. Good plants are six dollars a hundred, and should be planted a foot apart. Catalogues say that if planted in rich soil one foot apart, a hedge five feet high can be grown in three seasons. Common Privet is more hardy than California Privet. Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora makes a beautiful low-growing hedge; good plants can be bought for six dollars a hundred. Berberis Thunbergii, or Barberry, makes a fine hedge, on account of its beautiful foliage and scarlet fruit. ”

“ From the bushes hang the red berries of the night shade, and the fruit on the briars glistens in the sun. Inside the copse stand innumerable thistles shoulder high, dead and gaunt; and a grey border running round the field at the bottom of the hedge shows where the tall, strong weeds of summer have withered up. A bird flutters round the topmost boughs of the elm yonder and disappears with a flash of blue—it is a jay. ”

“ And yet there is an expedient to effect it more insensibly, by planting it with the quick: Let every fifth or sixth be an holly-set; they will grow up infallibly with your quick; and as they begin to spread, make way for them by extirpating the white-thorn, till they quite domineer: Thus was my hedge first planted, without the least interruption to the fence, by a most pleasant metamorphosis. ”

“ Bad times in farming have greatly helped the beauty of hedges. They are mostly overgrown, hung with masses of dog-rose, trailed over by clematis, grown up at bottom with flowers, ferns, and fox-gloves, festooned with belladonna, padded with bracken. The Surrey hedges are mostly on banks, a sign that the soil is light, and that a bank is needed because the hedge will not thicken into a barrier. ”

“ There also grew the nightshade, with other solanaceous weeds, bearing little clusters of green and purple berries, wild oats, fox-tail grass, and nettles. The hedge gave them shelter, but no moisture, so that all these weeds and grasses had a somewhat forlorn and starved appearance, climbing up with long stringy stems among the powerful aloes. The hedge was also rich in animal life. There dwelt mice, cavies, and elusive little lizards; crickets sang all day long under it, while in every open space the green epeiras spread their geometric webs. ”

“ Most of the fields are square, or at all events right-angled, unlike the irregular outline and corners of fields in other counties. The number of meadows make it appear as if the land was chiefly grass, though there is really a fair proportion of arable. Over every green hedge there seems a grassy mead; in every hedge trees are numerous, and their thick June foliage, green too, gives a sense of green colour everywhere. But this is relieved with red—the soil is red, and where the plough has been the red furrows stand out so brightly as to seem lifted a little from the level. ”

“ Raspberry suckers shoot up in one part of the copse; the fruit is doubtless eaten by the birds. Troops of them come here, travelling along the great hedge by the wayside, and all seem to prefer the outside trees and bushes to the interior of the copse. This great hedge is as wide as a country double mound, though it has but one ditch; the thick hawthorn, blackthorn, elder, and bramble—the oaks, elms, ashes, and firs form, in fact, almost a cover of themselves. ”

“ The long grass flowing towards the hedge has reared in a wave against it. Along the hedge it is higher and greener, and rustles into the very bushes. There is a mark only now where the footpath was; it passed close to the hedge, but its place is traceable only as a groove in the sorrel and seed-tops. Though it has quite filled the path, the grass there cannot send its tops so high; it has left a winding crease. By the hedge here stands a moss-grown willow, and its slender branches extend over the sward. Beyond it is an oak, just apart from the bushes ”

“ Under their cover, well shaded and hidden, birds build, but not against or on the stems, though they will affix their nests to much less certain supports. With the grasses that overhung the edge, with the rushes in the ditch itself, and these great plants on the mound, the whole hedge was wrapped and thickened. ”

“ With its large needle-like spines, an inch to an inch and a half long, studding its broad fleshy leaves, and capable of inflicting a wound difficult to heal, and with smaller spines covering the flowers and the fruit, it is easy to see that to a barefooted and lightly clothed people such a hedge presented a very formidable, not to say impassable, barrier. ”

“ Neither makes a good flat-topped hedge of the ordinary kind, as the growth is distinctly pyramidal, and unless kept to a point is apt to get injured by snow. They should be cut to a point, and a hedge 12 to 20 feet high of this shape is very handsome and effective in a garden, as well as forming a first-rate screen. ”

“ In the hedge itself a hedge-sparrow just once lets loose its frail dewy song, a nightingale utters one phrase of marvelling and is still. The musky wild roses star all the hedge and the scent begins to wander in the moist air with the scent of honeysuckle and of shadowy grasses. Under a now misted sky that makes the light seem to dwell no longer in it but in the grass, the flat, yellow field running to the little wood is a place impregnable and inaccessible. ”

“ The Evergreens mostly prosper with any aspect. Among the best are the various Ivies and Cotoneasters and Crataegus pyracantha.
The trees and shrubs which may be used are numerous; but for dense hedges perhaps the most useful are Holly, White Thorn, Privet, Barberry, Laurel, Box and Yew. Where possible, the straight line of a long clipped hedge may be broken by groups of shrubs planted within, unless a formal garden effect be desired. It is well to distinguish between the use of shrubs or trees as bounding fences or screens and their use as beautiful individual plants ”