This is the first in a series of blogs about planting hedges

There are plenty of companies offering instant hedging as a screen or to mark out a boundary and they give the impression that it's all very easy. To me hedges are far, far more than this. I love to design hedges to create architectural form in a garden. They are there because they are a beautiful piece of sculpture to divide and separate areas, to create rooms and to bring stability to a design. They are one of the most important design features we can use in a garden and if executed really well can create something very special very quickly. Hedges are about detail, and about the tremendous skills needed to create a living work of art.

Hedges can be formal with clipped, vertical sides and a level top. Or they can be fluid, rolling, natural and curvaceous. We use hedges at different heights, plant them in blocks, and stagger them with gaps to create a sense of depth. On a scheme five years ago we created an instant hedge by bringing in plants specially grown for a year in a German nursery and planting them over two weeks in a London garden. We created a formal garden to such perfection that within three months it was impossible to see that it had only just been installed.

Our hedges thrive with good quality foliage from soil level to the top (no nasty bare twigs at the bottom) because we live by attention to detail. We prefer individual hedge specimens planted together for a more sophisticated look than a long run of “instant hedging”, and we often plant specimens two or three across for luxurious extra width. By choosing the right species we can create something really bespoke that works in either a modern, urban environment or with a country look. Less is often more, using a hedge to pare back a space rather than over-complicating it.

Why evergreens aren’t everything! Evergreens are an obvious choice for creating a screen in a garden but I like to encourage my clients to think differently. Using deciduous specimens with wonderful architectural form makes for a really interesting effect in summer and winter alike.

Talk to us about how we can help create an amazing space for you.

Call us on 0207 305 7183 or email at enquire@alasteranderson.com