The heyday of hedges in history fell on the gardens of Versailles of the era of Louis XIV and the palace parks of Suleiman the Magnificent, but even these precious samples are inferior to the variety that is available to modern gardeners, and to create and maintain most of the hedges in good form, it does not take a lot of effort , finance and time.
Why is she needed
The hedge on the territory ennobled by landscape design performs several functions:
- Zoning of sites of various styles (rockery, English garden) or for practical purposes (barbecue area, tiered mini-garden, flower garden, sandbox and swing for children).
- Framing flower beds, ponds, garden paths.
- Correction of non-aesthetic walls of an outbuilding / fence.
- Creating a trendy garden object like a maze.
- Concealment of a site with its private life from prying eyes.
And of course, a hedge is an adornment in itself, a decor for some garden decoration elements. But here is an interesting detail - despite the fact that, theoretically, it is possible to create complex forms from it, recently naturalness has come into fashion, the minimum cutting of plants, giving them the simplest forms. Except that the wavy top line and decoration with green arches remain popular.
Also, when planning this type of gardening of your possessions, it is worth considering that hedges:
- They vary in height - literally from 10 cm to 6 meters.
- You can plant in one row or more. The latter option allows you to create spectacular longline compositions from different plants.
- Some species are usually cut, while others are allowed to grow freely.
- It is possible to form from several types of plantings in close mixing, the main thing is that they are combined with soil / care needs and grow equally intensively.
The classic option is not the first decade is considered boxwood.
Being evergreen, the plant produces the most delicate visual impression of a deciduous species. About two hundred of its varieties are known and it is it that is usually used in international competitions in curly haircut. The dense glossy foliage of foliage is no less good at decoration (it is worth paying attention to the ordinary and variegated).
But vesicle grows in all directions without a haircut, its leaves resemble maple and there are varieties purple and summer, as well as yellow and gold all year round and even two-tone - burgundy with gold.
The following flora representatives are also popular:
- hornbeam;
- snowberry;
- maple;
- beech;
- cotoneaster;
- acacia;
- white derain;
- euonymus;
- willow;
- small-leaved elm.
The magnificent view is different spirea, with small flowers collected in a bunch, and leaves, in different species of it, in the autumn, they often stain for a long time in scarlet, purple and orange.
And if flowers are beckoning, it’s worthwhile to look at such types:
- jasmine;
- park rose;
- hydrangea;
- Weigela
- common lilac and Hungarian;
- exochord;
- cercis;
- oleander;
- beaver;
- Syrian hibiscus
- mock-up;
- rhododendron.
But nothing shines like Forsythia. Thin, airy branches spreading one of the first in the season are decorated with inflorescences and this is pure gold for a whole month.
If the hedge is to decorate a rocky garden in an Asian style, a creamy-purple flowering of the charming quince or the bold scarlet buds of Japanese camellia can be a great choice. However, they, of course, are good in the garden of any style.
Still charming kerria japanese - Terry yellow flowers delight with their appearance from April warm spring to late autumn.
And it is also important to note that deciduous plants are diverse and interesting, but conifers can keep hedges year round in their original form.
The monotony of color has always been considered the main disadvantage of the evergreens, but there are already varieties on the market with elegant silver, bluish and golden shades of needles.
The following evergreens are often chosen for hedges:
- dwarf mountain pine;
- larch;
- Photinia
- laurel cherry;
- common juniper;
- Lavson's cypress;
- spruce.
But the leader thuja western, very variable in height and shape of the crown (from the ball to the spiral variety, whose branches are really twisted in this way).
If you create a hedge of berry yew, then until the first frosts it will be decorated not with classic conifer cones, but with red or blue berries. And yew is interesting in that it does not have a characteristic odor (since it does not emit tar).
But the leader in exoticism can be considered Muriel's Fargo. This is also an evergreen plant, but - bamboo, growing bushy.
You can create a hedge from crops traditionally perceived in horticulture as berry:
- currant;
- chokeberry aronia;
- hawthorn;
- honeysuckle;
- elder;
- sea buckthorn;
- viburnum;
- irga;
- blackthorn.
And of the barberries, one species is particularly interesting - Thunberg, whose palette of foliage includes colors - green, brown with gold, purple, ruby.
And on his example (generally poisonous) it is important to note that many decorative varieties of fruit bushes are inedible or tasteless (after all, when selected, taste is the least that interests gardeners).
As for the low hedges (borders), blooming heather is unusually spectacular in lilac color, or practically a copy of it is Erica grass.
With the skillful imagination of the designer, who took up the landscape, a hedge can become its significant element, a “highlight” that helps to reveal the essence of the design concept of a personal plot. And in fact, this is not as troublesome as it might seem at first glance, because most plants only need 2-3 haircuts per season.
Finally, another nuance is important - some plantings can become a home for birds, which are very useful not only for the beauty of songs, but also for the ability to feed on insect pests.
If the birds are registered in the hedge - they carefully approach her haircut, adjusting its timing, sometimes bypassing some sections - all so as not to disturb the nests.
