Hi, I'm a total gardening newbie but I hoping to get a bit of advice.
A few months ago I planted 6 pyracantha shrubs equally spaced out
along the front of my 7m wide garden. I eventually want a hedge but at
the time I could only afford buying the 6 so there is about 1m gap
between them. I now intend to plant another 5 in between the existing
shrubs.

When I planted the original ones I dug up about twice the root ball
size to plant them in. However, I've discovered that grass cutting is
taking a while due to having to go around each shrub carefully with
hand shears. I am also worried about the future as the lawnmower will
not fit in between the shrubs and hand cutting the grass could become
more difficult when the shrubs grow. I bought them about 3 years old
with 2-4 branches in a U shape.

Should I cut a trench instead of planting in holes? Is it ok to cut
the turf back a bit from each established shrub at this stage? Maybe
have about 50cm space around each shrub that I could fill with mulch?
This is the front of my house so I would like it to look reasonably
attractive.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.
Badbark.

On 21/8/07 13:01, in article
, "Badbark"
wrote:

Hi, I'm a total gardening newbie but I hoping to get a bit of advice.
A few months ago I planted 6 pyracantha shrubs equally spaced out
along the front of my 7m wide garden. I eventually want a hedge but at
the time I could only afford buying the 6 so there is about 1m gap
between them. I now intend to plant another 5 in between the existing
shrubs.

When I planted the original ones I dug up about twice the root ball
size to plant them in. However, I've discovered that grass cutting is
taking a while due to having to go around each shrub carefully with
hand shears. I am also worried about the future as the lawnmower will
not fit in between the shrubs and hand cutting the grass could become
more difficult when the shrubs grow. I bought them about 3 years old
with 2-4 branches in a U shape.

Should I cut a trench instead of planting in holes? Is it ok to cut
the turf back a bit from each established shrub at this stage? Maybe
have about 50cm space around each shrub that I could fill with mulch?
This is the front of my house so I would like it to look reasonably
attractive.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.
Badbark.

When planting trees and hedging quite a lot of people leave bare earth
around them because they don't want them to have competition from grass or
weeds also seeking water and nourishment. You could cover the bare earth
with broken slates, pebbles or mulch but you must make sure water can get to
the roots. One way of doing this is to sink a short length of pipe into the
ground near the trunk of each plant and then just put a hose pipe or
watering can into that. This is also handy if you live in a dry area of the
country where - unlikely as it seems at present - there might be water
shortages and hosepipe bans! If you use mulch such as bark chippings, make
sure it's well rotted because, as it breaks down, it takes some nourishment
from the soil, causing distress to the plants.
And digging a trench to plant a hedge is fine because it's easier to place
the plants exactly, add any compost that's needed etc. A new and immature
hedge needs to be kept well watered.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'