Beech, A Hedge For All Seasons

There is an almost constant demand for evergreen hedging as it has so many obvious attractions. A well grown hedge that holds its leaves is perfect for privacy - while deciduous hedging can look bare in winter - a leafholder is impervious to sight so no more nosy neighbours (unless you are truly unfortunate, like friends of mine, whose so called neighbour built a viewing platform in her garden...).

Hedges that carry foliage all the year round reduce traffic noise. In winter this is especially important as, because there is so much less foliage, there are more hard surfaces that produce echo. The same level of traffic in midwinter produces appreciably more 'discernible noise' than it does on midsummer's day. And foliage is a great windbreak which really matters when a chill wind is coming in from the north and gardens need all the shelter they can get. Less crucial when a balmy south-westerly breeze is bringing warm airs in through those lovely long, hot English summer evenings!

However (and there is always a 'but'), evergreen hedge plants have shortcomings. They are dark and uniform, so are often rather formal. Conifers (with the notable exception of yew) are also most unforgiving if they are clipped badly. The brown patches in leylandii hedges are the indelible tattoos left by gardeners who cut them back too far, never to regrow.

Which brings me on to one of the joys of almost any garden - beech hedging. While a beech hedge is not technically evergreen, it holds its leaves through the year, so it has all the good points of evergreen and none of the bad ones. A good beech hedge is a truly beautiful, changing, living thing.

Green beech is a delicious fresh edible apple green in spring, while copper beech is almost pink. The leaves of both, darken through the summer; green beech hedging goes through the hues of light and mid greens before settling on the same rich dark green that copper beech finds (albeit through shades of purple) in late summer. And then autumn arrives, and with it the dark green fades into a patchwork of glorious golds and these too disappear only to be replaced with a crisp, warm golden brown as the leaves finally die.

Unlike almost every other hedging plant, however, the dead leaves stay on the plant often until new foliage emerges the following spring emerges. So beech hedging plants are not so much evergreen as ever in leaf and ever in colour.

Beech hedges are also easy. Beech is pretty unfussy really - the only thing it really cannot stand is ground with bad drainage. Beech is a 10,000 year British native - up there with yew, oak, scots pine, hawthorn, ash and only a few others. In that time it has become used to extremes of acid and alkaline soils and its shallow root system allows it to survive in places where there is a thin covering of soil over solid rock. In that shallow root system lies the key to success with planting and establishing beech hedging.

When the plant (or the hedge is young), competition from weeds and grasses should be eliminated. By the same token, the ground should be kept damp - soaker hose is good for this, and the ground should be worked before planting to allow the fine roots to establish quickly.

That early investment (mainly labour) is well worth it. A good beech hedge will last for hundreds of years, is beautiful, value enhancing and provides year round protection from sigh, sound and wind. Every home should have one.

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