Planting large laurel hedge

Gazelle1985

We're going to be planting some large laurel hedging at the weekend. The laurels have been in pots for a while because they ground has been too dry to plant them, and are now about 6ft(!) In the recent windy weather were falling over so we need to get them in the ground asap!

I read about staking the hedges to keep them from rocking in the wind when planted and the roots breaking. Any thoughts on the best way to do this? They're very bushy and have multiple stems, so not as easy as staking a tree.

Thank you

Davesnave

Don't take this personally, but putting in 6' bushes is not MSE and counter-productive in the long term. You will be trying to stabilise something that presents a large area to every winter gale, long before the roots have achieved a good hold in the soil you have just disturbed..... But then you know all that, hence the question!

If it were me, and it wouldn't be, I'd probably prune them down to 4'
and hopefully have a digger take out individual holes, rather than a trench. The digger driver can compact the soil with the back of a bucket once they are in.

I'd usually use steel road pins 1.25m long for temporary support during etablishment, but I'm not sure they be right for this job. I can only think of two rows of fence posts with rails nailed between, but I'm sure someone else will have a better idea than that.

Despite what I said, I 've relocated trees up to 15' successfully using a digger, but only when it's been either that or the bonfire!

I'm not a great laurel fan, but they're excusable if one has someone truly horrid on the other side, as I do!:rotfl:

Gazelle1985

Thanks for your reply. We certainly do have something horrible the other side - a 3ft falling down fence (not ours), so absolutely no privacy in our garden or kitchen, and the next door neighbour's garden full of rubbish. We only moved in in May, and so really needed something fast growing to hide it.

I'm hoping they'll be ok, the steel road pins look like they could work actually - we could get a few and secure them at different points. Why are they not MSE though, just out of interest?

Mojisola

Gazelle1985 wrote: »

Why are they not MSE though, just out of interest?

Young hedging plants establish easily and grow quickly - and are very cheap.

Buying much more expensive tall plants isn't usually worth the money.

Davesnave

Gazelle1985 wrote: »

I'm hoping they'll be ok, the steel road pins look like they could work actually - we could get a few and secure them at different points. Why are they not MSE though, just out of interest?

Buying large, fast-growing shrubs like those is expensive and smaller ones usually establish better, without so many losses. They soon catch up.

This is advice originally given to me by a reputable nursery, despite their having a vested interest in selling large ones!

Laurel are much easier to establish than most other shrubs/trees, though. I always seem to get get losses with yew, for example.

Mojisola

Older plants also need more care initially to make sure they thrive in the soil.

Enrich the ground before planting, loosen the roots when you remove the plants from the pots, put in supports against the wind, water well and they should be fine - at least you'll have an instant screen to look at instead of the neighbour's fence.

Davesnave

Mojisola wrote: »

Enrich the ground before planting....

But do not use farmyard manure, as I did once.

The worms in the manure attracted every mole in the vicinity, so I soon had a mole motorway under my rapidly subsiding new hedge!

Gazelle1985

Thank you - very helpful advice!

sheramber

https://www.laurelhedging.com/planting/

glasgowdan

Gazelle, don't be put down by negative comments on what you've bought. They will establish just fine. The chances are you won't need to even stake them at all if it's reasonably heavy ground. If you do need to, I'd ram in a 6ft tree stake at either end, and in the middle if it's more than about 12ft long. Tie a rope between them about 4ft off the ground, passing it through the middle of the plants, and loosely tie the few main stems of each hedge plant to this rope. I'd also do as Dave suggests and trim off the top 12" of the plants as this will not only lessen the strain put on them by the wind, it'll also reduce frost damage to the most tender leaves, and encourage the plants to grow more bushy.

Gazelle1985

Thank you, they've gone in now and we've staked them so fingers crossed for no gales in the next few weeks!!