We have a fair-sized, well-established beech hedge in our garden,
growing against a boundary fence. It (the hedge, not the fence) is
probably about 10' tall, 14' wide and 6' deep, and that's too big.

I'd like to cut this back in three directions: to allow our neighbours
more light by reducing its height; to free up more space in our garden
by cutting the longer growths at the front, and to create space for a
shady border underneath by cutting back completely to the trunks from
ground level up to about 2-3' height, at least from the front.

The idea is to have a healthy growth between 2-3' and about 7-8' in
height that's about 2-3' in depth, with about the same width as now.

Will the beech survive this operation? If so, when's the best time to
do it? Any other tips?

Our garden runs N-S, and the beech is on the E side, for what
difference that makes. Oh, and I think sparrows nest in it. It's
always full of them.

Thanks in advance for any pointers for a delurking newbie.
--
John H

'John',

I am quite confident that if you shape your hedge to that which you
desire it will survive to your satisfaction.

Regards,
Emrys Davies.





"John Hatpin" wrote in message
...
We have a fair-sized, well-established beech hedge in our garden,
growing against a boundary fence. It (the hedge, not the fence) is
probably about 10' tall, 14' wide and 6' deep, and that's too big.

I'd like to cut this back in three directions: to allow our neighbours
more light by reducing its height; to free up more space in our garden
by cutting the longer growths at the front, and to create space for a
shady border underneath by cutting back completely to the trunks from
ground level up to about 2-3' height, at least from the front.

The idea is to have a healthy growth between 2-3' and about 7-8' in
height that's about 2-3' in depth, with about the same width as now.

Will the beech survive this operation? If so, when's the best time to
do it? Any other tips?

Our garden runs N-S, and the beech is on the E side, for what
difference that makes. Oh, and I think sparrows nest in it. It's
always full of them.

Thanks in advance for any pointers for a delurking newbie.
--
John H

'John',

I am quite confident that if you shape your hedge to that which you
desire it will survive to your satisfaction.

Regards,
Emrys Davies.





"John Hatpin" wrote in message
...
We have a fair-sized, well-established beech hedge in our garden,
growing against a boundary fence. It (the hedge, not the fence) is
probably about 10' tall, 14' wide and 6' deep, and that's too big.

I'd like to cut this back in three directions: to allow our neighbours
more light by reducing its height; to free up more space in our garden
by cutting the longer growths at the front, and to create space for a
shady border underneath by cutting back completely to the trunks from
ground level up to about 2-3' height, at least from the front.
SNIP
John H

It is good practice to only cut back in one direction a year. e.g. top
this year, etc

Cheers
John T

--
If emailing direct please remove
wet from towill.

In article ,
" Emrys Davies" writes:
| 'John',
|
| I am quite confident that if you shape your hedge to that which you
| desire it will survive to your satisfaction.

My immediate reaction was "Pygmalion and Galatea".

Perhaps, if you hadn't top-posted, I would have seen the context
first :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

John Towill wrote in news:1lx6g9kjd5v53
:

"John Hatpin" wrote in message
...
We have a fair-sized, well-established beech hedge in our garden,
growing against a boundary fence. It (the hedge, not the fence) is
probably about 10' tall, 14' wide and 6' deep, and that's too big.

I'd like to cut this back in three directions:

It is good practice to only cut back in one direction a year. e.g.
top this year, etc

If it's 6'deep and 10' tall, it's unlikely that John will be able to
just take the top off without attacking the sides to allow access to it.
And given the growth habit of beech, it's usually difficult to take it
back to being thin without also taking the top off, once it has got used
to growing in a bush.

In any case, I think the 'one side a year' thing is being rather
overcautious with such a robust and effective hedging plant as beech.

I reckon it's pretty unlikely John will lose any of those trees even if
he reduces them to ground level, unless they are already unwell. I
would just take the whole hedge back to a foot or so below where he
wants it.

If it's like mine was, it will be a good-looking hedge again by next
autumn.

John, I should also mention that this is just the right time of year to
give the thing a good haircut and let it recover quickly in the spring -
so if I were you, I'd get onto it this month.

Victoria

John Towill wrote in news:1lx6g9kjd5v53
:

"John Hatpin" wrote in message
...
We have a fair-sized, well-established beech hedge in our garden,
growing against a boundary fence. It (the hedge, not the fence) is
probably about 10' tall, 14' wide and 6' deep, and that's too big.

I'd like to cut this back in three directions:

It is good practice to only cut back in one direction a year. e.g.
top this year, etc

If it's 6'deep and 10' tall, it's unlikely that John will be able to
just take the top off without attacking the sides to allow access to it.
And given the growth habit of beech, it's usually difficult to take it
back to being thin without also taking the top off, once it has got used
to growing in a bush.

In any case, I think the 'one side a year' thing is being rather
overcautious with such a robust and effective hedging plant as beech.

I reckon it's pretty unlikely John will lose any of those trees even if
he reduces them to ground level, unless they are already unwell. I
would just take the whole hedge back to a foot or so below where he
wants it.

If it's like mine was, it will be a good-looking hedge again by next
autumn.

John, I should also mention that this is just the right time of year to
give the thing a good haircut and let it recover quickly in the spring -
so if I were you, I'd get onto it this month.

Victoria

In message , John Hatpin
writes
We have a fair-sized, well-established beech hedge in our garden,
growing against a boundary fence. It (the hedge, not the fence) is
probably about 10' tall, 14' wide and 6' deep, and that's too big.

I'd like to cut this back in three directions: to allow our neighbours
more light by reducing its height; to free up more space in our garden
by cutting the longer growths at the front, and to create space for a
shady border underneath by cutting back completely to the trunks from
ground level up to about 2-3' height, at least from the front.

The idea is to have a healthy growth between 2-3' and about 7-8' in
height that's about 2-3' in depth, with about the same width as now.

Will the beech survive this operation? If so, when's the best time to
do it? Any other tips?

The general advice you've got so far here and if you read it in books is
that Beeches are pretty resilient to hard cutting back, however it isn't
always so.....

This happens to have been the first question we asked on urg back in
1997

http://www.google.co.uk/groups?hl=en...&frame=right&t
h=bfd2cdae9bfea160&seekm=34872225.17D8%40algonet.s e#link1

With that advice plus books under our belt we went ahead and cut the
hedge back very hard on the sides, as well as cutting back the top.

Sadly, it never recovered on our side, there was a very little
sprouting, but mostly they remained resolutely bare, after say 3 growing
seasons of this we decided that we would go for more drastic action and
cut the stems down as well, hoping for regrowth, while there was some
from maybe 30-40% of the stumps, most did not. and of course beech does
not grow that fast anyway.

In the end we gave up, we needed a decent boundary to keep Elinor in,
and there was no fence, so we removed the stumps and put up a fence.

We still have a short section near the house which was not cut back
hard for some reason and this is flourishing.....

There are other examples around here that I have seen of similar results
So just be prepared for poor results.

Though I did quite like the minimalist hedgerow look....
--
Chris French and Helen Johnson, Leeds
urg Suppliers and References FAQ:
http://www.familyfrench.co.uk/garden/urgfaq/index.html

In article , Chris French and Helen
Johnson writes
The general advice you've got so far here and if you read it in books is
that Beeches are pretty resilient to hard cutting back, however it isn't
always so.....

With that advice plus books under our belt we went ahead and cut the
hedge back very hard on the sides, as well as cutting back the top.

Sadly, it never recovered on our side, there was a very little
sprouting, but mostly they remained resolutely bare, after say 3 growing
seasons of this we decided that we would go for more drastic action and
cut the stems down as well, hoping for regrowth, while there was some
from maybe 30-40% of the stumps, most did not. and of course beech does
not grow that fast anyway.

You seem to have been very unlucky. I've dug out a beech at the corner
of the house. I removed the entire stump, but could not reach one or two
roots which had gone under the patio. Even though it was autumn, they
sprouted new leaves, and looked to be flourishing. I'm just going to
have to try glyphosate on them in then spring.

John
--
John Rouse

In message , John Rouse
writes
In article , Chris French and Helen
Johnson writes
The general advice you've got so far here and if you read it in books is
that Beeches are pretty resilient to hard cutting back, however it isn't
always so.....

With that advice plus books under our belt we went ahead and cut the
hedge back very hard on the sides, as well as cutting back the top.

Sadly, it never recovered on our side, there was a very little
sprouting, but mostly they remained resolutely bare, after say 3 growing
seasons of this we decided that we would go for more drastic action and
cut the stems down as well, hoping for regrowth, while there was some
from maybe 30-40% of the stumps, most did not. and of course beech does
not grow that fast anyway.

You seem to have been very unlucky.

So it seems, I was juts giving a little warning.

It may have been because we have very heavy clay and poor drainage.
--
Chris French and Helen Johnson, Leeds
urg Suppliers and References FAQ:
http://www.familyfrench.co.uk/garden/urgfaq/index.html

In article , Chris French and Helen
Johnson writes

It may have been because we have very heavy clay and poor drainage.

Oh if its heavy clay you want.....

John
in Clay Cross, where we have two different colours of clay at different
depths!
--
John Rouse

In article , Chris French and Helen
Johnson writes

It may have been because we have very heavy clay and poor drainage.

Oh if its heavy clay you want.....

John
in Clay Cross, where we have two different colours of clay at different
depths!
--
John Rouse