Janet Baraclough
wibbled on Tuesday 20 April 2010 15:35

The message
from Tim Watts contains these words:

Hi,

I've got good topsoil (6-12") on top of heavy clay (Sussex), reasonable
drainage. Having just chopped a 10' hawthorn hedge down to 3' for now[1],
I'm looking to start planting a new hedge between the hawthorn trunks and
take the hawthorn out when the new plants start to establish.

Are there likely to be any problems with my top 3 choices so far:

Box,
Yew,
Beech.

The soil will be filled, and drained dry of water and nutrients, by
the mature established root system of the hawthorns; no amount of
top-lopping
changes that. The stumps will very quickly re-sprout and (with
appropriate trimming) create a dense new hedge in a few years.

That competition will make it almost impossible to establish small
new hedge plants and make them grow.

Janet

OK - Point taken. But ignoring that, because there's not a lot I can do
about it[1], do any of the plants object to clay?

[1] OK - I could chop the hawthorn down now (3' is easy to handle now the
bulk is off) but it will take a while for the new plants to establish and
the hawthorn is actually quite gappy in places - I was going to start
there... Having a bit of a hedge in place for now isn't a bad thing.

I could also add slow acting fertiliser if necessary.

Cheers
Tim

--
Tim Watts

Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.