Hedge Progress - Second Summer .....

It's been a while since my last new post, what with work, holidays, more work and yet another holiday coming up, although I have updated a few of my other gardening posts....

No major projects in progress - I've still got a problem with my neck and shoulder so digging and heavy lifting etc is out of the question for the rest of this year.

But it's time for an update on the hedge bounding our new garden extension to the west, which we planted bareroot in early 2013 and then mulched with polyprop and stones at the beginning of this year.

It seems to be doing reasonably well, although progress is mixed depending upon location and I'm not sure why this is the case.  

The extreme southerly end is perpetually shaded by the large conifers, but the rest sees a lot of sun.  We gave them all a good dressing with Growmore in the spring and they've been well watered during any dry spells.

If viewed obliquely, it's all looking quite good although it's much higher in the middle.

central and southern sections....

And the best growth by far is in this middle section, where it all seems to have knitted together nicely right down to ground level and is now a quite dense and opaque barrier.

the middle bit - 5'-6' tall and knitting together well

To the north, growth is less - the trees are generally lower in height and less densely packed, but it's not too bad.

behind the vegetable patch - lower, but not bad....

However, the twelve metres or so to the south is the worst, generally of low height and still with significant gaps between the foliage at low level.  And, sod's law of course, this is the section which we'd like to see grow the highest and most dense, since it will provide a total screen from the dog-walkers and passers-by who use the woodland path to the south.

to the south - progress not so good....

In this southern section however, we do have signs of the first fruit from the hedge !  In February, we noticed a handful of catkins and red fruit buds on the otherwise bare trees, and now we've a few small clumps (or 'burrs') of hazelnuts.

hazelnuts....

There's still a couple of months to go before the husks will brown off and these will be ready to pick, but let's hope we can get at them before the squirrels.

So the hedge is not as advanced as I'd like - I guess we just have to be patient.  We have some experience of waiting for hedges to grow - in the summer of 2011, soon after we first bought the house, we planted eleven small laurel trees to make a short hedge to one side of the front gate.

laurel hedge in July 2011 - the old MGF is long gone.....

and the same hedge this morning.....

However, there's still a good couple of months of the growing season left, so let's hope our new hedge can put on a spurt before the autumn arrives.