Instant Hornbeam Hedging provides native screening

We plant a lot of hedges for instant privacy and security but there aren’t many evergreen options other than holly and yew that are native plants. Besides, nothing evergreen will tolerate being waterlogged for long… Sometimes evergreen hedges may simply look out of place in the surrounding landscape.

Hornbeam is a reliable option for ticking those boxes. It isn’t evergreen but retains a percentage of the dead leaves during winter, just like Beech. However it leafs up a month earlier in spring than Beech, is faster growing and tolerates a wider range of soil conditions. Its foliage also turns a rich golden yellow in autumn. Hornbeam is often our go-to option for hedging and screening on heavy clay and sites prone to being a bit soggy. This is because it has evolved to thrive on clay and will even tolerate short periods of winter flooding from time to time.

This particular job just outside one of the villages near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, required native hedging sympathetic to the landscape as well as to provide screening. With guidance following a site visit, the customer opted for our Instant Hornbeam Hedge Blocks. We supplied these as wire-wrapped rootballs from our fields during dormancy (winter).

To make the ongoing maintenance easier we installed soaker hose on timers, connected to the customer’s outside taps, to provide effective and efficient watering. As the length of hedging planted was quite long this was installed in two sections with a separate timer on each. We planted the hedge in February. As you can see from the photo taken by the customer in early June, the watering system has certainly helped as every single plant in the new hedge is thriving.