How much compost will I need for a hedge?

browneyedbazzi

Can anyone provide some advice about how much compost I will need to plant a new hedge? I've ordered 75 bare root cherry/common laurels which are 60-90cm each and the hedge will be approximately 30 metres long.

I'm guessing i'll need a fair bit of compost so I may be best getting a bulk delivery from somewhere rather than buying bags, but I don't really have any idea how to work out the volume required

I_have_spoken

Certainly one bulk bag (950l), maybe two depending on the depth of compost you plan on forking in and using as weed-suppressing mulch. Expect to pay £100 to £125 per bag.

Davesnave

Do cherry laurel need soil enrichment?

Round my way they're available FOC on the roadside. I just popped mine into the soil and they are growing pretty well.

Last time I enriched soil for a newly-planted hedge, I might as well have erected a sign saying "Moles this way!" as I had a mole motorway under the new transplants within days.

peter_the_piper

Personally I would not use compost, plant direct just adding a handful of bonemeal to the backfill.

Davesnave

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Personally I would not use compost, plant direct just adding a handful of bonemeal to the backfill.

Agreed. Moles don't eat bonemeal.

They don't eat farmyard manure either, but they like the worms that come with it.

browneyedbazzi

Thanks folks, I saw a video about how to plant a laurel hedge and it showed the guy digging in compost (as well as adding some rootgrow) so I assumed it was the best thing to do.

Are problems with moles common?? I live in a fairly built up suburb of london so I wouldn't have thought they would be an issue here.

Davesnave

Laurel is unfussy, so if your soil is reasonable the expense of conditioning media probably isn't justified, but an inexpensive, slow-release fertilizer, like bonemeal, might help.

As for Rootgrow, we used it on our mole attacked beech hedge, but ran out 2/3 of the way through. Now, a few years on, we have no idea where the last Rootgrow-treated plant is, it made that much difference!

Moles are unlikely to be a problem in the suburbs of London, but here in Devon, wherever I disturb the soil, they home-in like those wormlike creatures in "Dune!" :eek: