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Over the years, Gerry has answered more than 5,000 of your gardening questions. His knowledge is based in science and practical experience, and by working on radio and television.
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I have a beautiful griselinia hedge but since we had that terrible cold weather I have noticed that the leaves are falling off will this do the hedge any harm?
I am planning a small bay tree maze as a feature in my kitchen garden. I have read that if left to grow up to 12 metres, bays will take all the nutrients out of the soils, but I am wondering, if kept well-pruned, do you think it will be alright and leave enough nutrients for vegetables?Would it be a better idea to mix bay trees with other plants? If so, what would you recommend?
I have an escallonia hedge for the past 5 yrs, very slow growth only up to 4ft. The leaves keep falling off it - yellow and black colour. What is a fast growing replacement for it? I live in a windy area and the soil is quite poor.
My neighbour and I are trying to find a way to build and render my 2.5 storey extension wall, without compromising his 5m tall leylandii trees, which are planted about 70cm from the boundary wall (on his side). There is currently no growth on the "our" side of the bottom half of the trees, due to the shading effects of our existing 1 storey structure. What would happen the trees if they were cut the back to the trunk all the way to the top? If the worst comes to the worst, is it possible to buy and plant mature leylandi and at what cost?
I have planted laurel hedging on the boundaries of my site ranging in height at present from 3 ft to 5 ft. I now wish to prune this hedging and wonder when is the best time to prune and what is the best way to prune the hedging.
I planted 140 copperbeech hedges in 2007 but 110 didnt take, garden centre replaced them and I replanted them in dec08, but again 65 didnt take, planting them all the same way good base with compost, 1ft apart and zigzag formation against a post and rail fence with wire. I'm very dissapointed,and I've no idea what to do next. I had planted all this hedge to encourage the local wild life and I was willing to wait the years it would take to grow and fill out, but its very expensive and labour intensive to keep replacing dead plants. It seems odd that some of the plants take but others dont. Should i try a different type of plant, any suggestions?
I have a new garden on quite an exposed site near sea. Last year I planted 20 Rowan trees as wind break, but they are not enough. Can you suggest what other trees I could put in front of these for shelter and what space I would need to allow between say silver birch and existing rowan trees?
My green privet hedge appears to be failing gradually over the last number of years. It is covers quite a large area and divides the garden in half. Should I dig out and replace with new plants or should I plant a different hedge? I want to keep it formal.
We are looking to plant a hedge on the border of our 1 acre site. The soil is heavy but we have raised beds on perimeter.We are looking for-something that is reasonably fast growing for privacy- 5/7ft tall as overall height- something evergreen- low maintenance- Not too expensive (as there is a lot to plant)
When or do I prune my escalonia hedge it is about three years old but only a year in the ground, it also so has some yellow spots on it. If yes how do I prune it. Also I have whitethorn in the hedge do I prune that too?
How do you take cuttingd and is it right to plant them in pot or to plant in the ground where they are being left?
My daughter has a beech hedge in Darver Co Louth.approx 5years old.Last spring the leaves on about twenty very mature plants seemed to shrivel up and eventually they went bare and seem to be dead.I wonder if this is some kind of fungal attack as three apple trees in the area also produced very small distorted leaves this year and never developed any blossoms.
I set a red robin hedge 3 years ago to block an unsightly bramble hedge. I now intend to kill off the bramble hedge.as it needs constant pruning to stop it growing through my hedge. My problem is what to replace it with. It is on a very steep bank with a drop off at one point of 8ft. It varies in width from 4-7 ft and runs along a series of fencing belonging to the estate beside me. I am looking for a solution that will be hassle free please
My garden is very bare and wind-prone also my clay seems heavy. What can i do? any ideas would be great thanks up in windy donegal.
Our Beech hedge is about 13 years old and we (ourselves) have kept at a height of 12 foot. Its about 500 feet long but does not have a tapered shape. It looks beautiful and gives great privacy but from a maintenance point of view we really find it too high and we feel we need to reduce its height by 2 to 3 feet. The trunk is pretty thick and I'd say the easiest way out is to take chain saw to it (hope I'm not frightening you!) or take the winter to gradually saw each plant by hand. How would you go about this? Many thanks.
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