Hedging your bets (or betting your hedges)

Over the years, we have often heard a story very similar to this one: a first time fruit tree owner was delighted at the sight of their trees coming into maturity, flowering beautifully and being courted by all manner of bees and butterflies before becoming weighed down with piles of slowly but surely swelling fruit.

Tags: Fruit trees

Photinia Red Robin makes a really photogenic hedge plant, with blazing red young leaves that can be persuaded to reappear all summer with regular trimming and simple but lovely white flowers.

However, just as the most handsome face can be transformed by acne, the prettiest Photinia bush can can be marred by an unpleasant looking dose of Leaf Spot. It really is an ugly thing to happen to such great foliage and if it happens to come your way, you may be quite alarmed.

Tags: Leaf Spot, Photinia Red Robin

People seem to think that every newly-planted tree needs a stake. They are sometimes (but not always) right as despite lots of writing to the contrary, staking is not always the best thing to do for your tree.

Here are a few reasons why.  Staked trees:

• tend to have a smaller root system than unstaked ones
• they also tend to grow taller and so are not as well anchored as unstaked ones.

Tags: planting, Staking

A lot of people will tell you to spray the weeds off before planting a hawthorn hedge.

Don’t bother. Use woven polypropylene weed prevention fabric instead. Cut the undergrowth short, put the fabric down where you want to plant the hedge and weigh it down with stones. If you want to be really tidy, push a strip about 2″ (5cms) wide of the fabric into the soil with a spade down each edge and at both ends (there is a good film on how to do this on our site).

Tags: Hawthorn, planting