The Yew (if preferred) will grow tall, over 8m in height. In one year, the Yew will typically grow 20cm – 40cm depending on factors like watering and nutrients, placing it into the ‘Medium growing hedge’ category. The hedging is easily maintained if just trimmed once or twice a year, but we urge our customers to do this in either early June or late September, to avoid cutting away any new shoots.
As spring arrives, the Yew blossoms yellow flowers, and during autumn red berries will begin to form. These berries may attract birds into your garden but be aware that they are inedible to humans and animals (pets and livestock). We also urge our customers to note that if the hedge’s new foliage is trimmed, it could mean that the Yew may lose its ability to flower that same year.
The fact the Yew hedging is evergreen is another reason our customers love it, because it gives your garden year-round colour, wind protection, privacy and somewhere for birds and wildlife to hide within it. It is also a versatile hedge as the Yew can grow in both fully sunned areas and shaded areas.
The Yew is suitable for normal to clay soils, however, will not grow well in waterlogged soil. The hedging still needs a lot of water in its first seasons, but if you know your soil can become waterlogged, we encourage you to see if it is possible to adapt the drainage of your soil, to improve its quality so the Yew may grow better.
Despite this, the hedging will still grow in all soils and will grow best in alkaline soil. It is still not a high maintenance plant because it will grow without difficulty (with the correct watering) and withstand typical British weather.
In our range of hedging, we have plants native from all around the world, in different sizes and colours and so it is important that you choose the best hedge for you and your garden. The hedging plants are available in different densities and root types, all which require different shadings and soil types that will affect the success growth rate of your hedge.
A common mistake by some customers is choosing a hedge purely based on its colours and appearance, without checking if the conditions of their garden are suitable for the hedging. This results in the hedging not growing well and the customer is left disappointed. For example, some gardens are more shaded and so hedging plants like Green Beech and Red Robin wouldn’t be ideal. There are also gardens in open areas where hedging like hornbeam won’t offer any wind protection and so a denser hedging like Leylandii would have been a better choice.
We are very proud of our design product filter on our store page that can help ensure you will receive the perfect hedge for you. The filter works by entering your garden’s information and then giving you the ideal hedging options that are guaranteed to grow well in your garden providing you maintain the hedge following our expert advice.
Hedging is a great alternative to fencing or brick walls for your garden because it adds more colour and nature to your garden, whilst being the most affordable option. Some of our smaller hedging plants can create a brilliant hedge for just under £100 and the hedging will last for years, providing you take our advice on how to maintain the hedge.
By using hedging as an alternative to brick walls and fencing for the boundaries of your garden, you can create the illusion of extra space and they can be used to create patterns and structures that will elevate your garden’s beauty. The hedging, especially our denser species, will still offer amazing privacy for your garden, as well as wind and noise protection.
At Harrods Outdoor, we are passionate about the environment and will always encourage people to make their gardens as green as possible to help our planet and our local wildlife. Planting hedging is a great way to do this as it can provide food and shelter for birds and insects, especially for those in an urban area where the wildlife may struggle to find a home.
Including hedging to your garden can also increase both the appearance and value of your property, as research shows property has a higher price on roads containing hedging and trees. The use of it in a landscaped garden can also attract more buyers for your home.
The technique of planting hedging will differ slightly depending on the root type and the species, but often the process is the same and not too difficult. We have created these step by step instructions below to help you with the process, but as always if you have any further questions feel free to email or ring us for our help.
After care is just as important as this planting process, you need to to ensure that you plants are well watered for the first year or two until the roots go deep enough to maintain enough water by themselves. You can also add more nutrients like bone meal through the first few years to ensure the hedging has a strong growth, but if your soil is already rich in nutrients, this won’t be needed.
With bare root plants it is important to ensure that when you are planting the hedge, the ground is not frozen and if there is a delay when you’re planting them, ensure they are kept warm and the roots are kept moist. When you plant bare root hedging it is a good idea to coat the roots in a rooting gel to help the plant roots grow faster at the start of the growing season. This gel or powder can be found on https://www.ebay.co.uk, https://www.amazon.co.uk or many garden centres as well. When planting root balls you don’t have to move the burlap or net packaging around the roots you can just plant them how they are as the burlap will dissolve over time and decay into nothing but more food for the plant.
As well as this, the planting density should always be correct because roots need enough space to absorb enough nutrients, vitamins and water, but don’t plant them too far away also as you will lose the appearance of a thick hedge. We have provided a recommended planting density for you to follow for each product to ensure you get the best growth possible.
Our larger specimens typically have a lower planting density, around 2 or 3 plants per metre. But for our smaller plants we recommend the planting density to be around 5 to 7 plants per metre. This is because our bigger plants cover a much larger area so there are fewer needed to create the ideal thick hedge you desire. Our larger plants are slightly more expensive than our smaller ones, but it is noteworthy that you will need to plant less larger plants per meter so you can save money by buying less plants in the first place.
We are proud of our efficient delivery service of our hedging, where we take the time to water and feed the plants before they are packaged for delivery to ensure the plants are of the highest standard whilst still keeping our prices low. We always have multiple people working on our website and phones to ensure our customers are always updated and able to have their questions heard. We are also proud of our eco-friendly standards, in which we make sure we re-use our pots, reducing our use of single-use products. Harrods Outdoor actively supports Ecosia, https://www.ecosia.org/, a search engine that funds the planting of trees across the planet to counter the effects of deforestation.
