Hi,

I have recently moved into a house where there is a 30m beech hedge along the road frontage. Between the hedge and the road is a fence. I am proposing to remove the fence but at present there are no leaves on the fence side of the hedge.

If I were to remove the fence, would the bare side of the hedge 'leaf up' in time?

On Oct 9, 10:05*am, Baytreecott Baytreecott.
wrote:
Hi,

I have recently moved into a house where there is a 30m beech hedge
along the road frontage. Between the hedge and the road is a fence. I
am proposing to remove the fence but at present there are no leaves on
the fence side of the hedge.

If I were to remove the fence, would the bare side of the hedge 'leaf
up' in time?

--
Baytreecott

What is the spacing between the hedge and the fence? 6", 12", 10' ?

Yes. It would. You might have to cut some of the leafless branches back to stimulate growth but beech will regrow from old wood. If it was mine I would treat it as if I wanted to restore the hedge. You can find good notes on how to bring old beech hedging back to life at http://www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/Beech-Hedge-Renovation

Good luck

Great info, thanks! Would the same hold true for hornbeam please?

I just planted bare-root hornbeam whips. I need to put in a fence to keep my kids off the road and indeed to remove the temptation to be going through the growing hedge.

I am thinking of a 3 ft high picket fence, but I can't leave much gap (maybe an inch) between the pickets to avoid the kids climbing over using the rails. When the hedge matures and closes over, I would ideally like to remove the pickets to save maintenance and show off the hedge itself.

My question is, if I have such a fence, will it stop the growth of side branches on that side? And when I remove the pickets, will the bottom of the hedge develop side branches / leaves?

If not, I might have to rethink the whole picket fence idea.

Wondered what your thoughts are please?

IN the end, I planted hornbeam whips, and put windbreak on both sides. Lucky as we had a scourging wind in april that killed a lot of plants.

Do you think I should top the whips before next year, to bush them out a bit?