Garden Landscape Hedges

Provide Shelter, Privacy, Physical and Psychological Barriers

May 13, 2008 Georgene A. Bramlage

Landscape garden hedges can be formal or informal. They provide shelter, privacy and barriers. They should complement landscape designs for which they are planned.

Landscape garden hedges can provide:

shelter from prevailing weather patterns,
privacy from invasive noise or views, and
psychological as well as physical barriers.

Hedges should complement the buildings and garden landscapes for which they are planned. They may be:

Formal (Photo #1): represent enclosure, symmetry, and tidiness; hark back to early European gardens; are high maintenance landscape features; and are trained by close shearing of plants.

In large formal gardens, especially Japanese and Chinese styles, hedges are works of art. In European-type gardens, finely clipped hedges demonstrate human power over nature, define paths and ornamental spaces, and provide structure to the landscape garden. Both styles require diligent maintenance.

Informal (Photo #2): represent freedom, openness and accessibility; appear spontaneous; however, planning for both structure and function is essential; pruned to encourage plants' natural habit and texture. Informal hedges complement contemporary homes and landscapes worldwide (Photo #3).

Hedges may be psychological and physical barriers:

Psychological barrier hedges: usually one to three feet high. They outline areas or serve as visual traffic stoppers. In reality, humans and animals can easily step over or through them. At the lower end of this height range, psychological hedges are in reality ground covers.
Physical barrier hedges: range from three to over five feet high. These hedges actually stop through-traffic. At the upper end of the height range, these close-knit hedges also provide visual barriers.

Hedge Maintenance

The two pruning methods for hedge maintenance demand slightly different tools and skills. They are:

Shearing: predominantly for formal hedges. Young shoot tips are headed back (cut off) resulting in regrowth of tips and dense bushy plants. This technique is best for small-leaf evergreen shrubs. Shearing plants that produce conspicuous flowers, instead of trimming and thinning them, leads to loss of next season's flower buds.
Thinning: removing plant portions and entire branches at their points of origin. Thinning can reduce a shrub's height and spread, and its density. However, the shrub keeps its natural shape. This technique primarily uses manual clippers and therefore takes time.

Manual versus Power Tools

Power hedge trimmers: physically easier to use than manual ones, and pruning takes less time. Usually, power tools should not be used to shape or maintain informal hedges. Often, formal hedges benefit from proper use of manual pruning tools.

Using power shears often results in an exuberance that ends with hedges sheared too closely. This causes little to no flowering the next season, and produces gaping holes that show the hedge's leafless interior. Another result is raw jagged branch cuts that show on the hedge surface.

Manual hedge shears and pruning saws: allow for fine close trimming that avoids gaping holes and jaggedly torn branches. Finely sharpened hedge shears permit a great degree of control over the shearing process. Knowledge of plant structure and function are prerequisites for obtaining superior effects. The horticulturist needs upper body strength to continuously manipulate even the lightest of hedge shears.

These are the best tool choices for pruning informal hedges composed of individual plants whose best features are open forms (Photo #4) or attractive juvenile growth (Photo #5).

Choose power or manual hedge-trimmers, or a combination of both, to initially form and then maintain formal hedges. Shearing several times within a growing season is labor intensive, but avoids the "shaggy dog" look and is necessary to preserve the formal hedge structure.

More Information: Barberry Shrubs (Berberis spp.): Selections for Physical Barrier Landscape Hedges.

The copyright of the article Garden Landscape Hedges in Landscaping is owned by Georgene A. Bramlage. Permission to republish Garden Landscape Hedges in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Formal Hedges-Sanssouci Park, Potsdam, Germany	Informal Hedge-Roanoke, VA	Shrub Roses-Informal Hedge
Informal Barrier Hedge	Red Twig Dogwood-Juvenile Twigs