Hedge- This perfect solution to create a decorative frame for the garden. Suitable for this different types plants, but a special atmosphere on personal plot spruces will be created - these are evergreen trees, they will give a fresh look at any time of the year.
Benefits of fir trees for hedges:
- Protection against noise, dust and wind;
- Creation of a special microclimate;
- Decoration of a view of uninteresting landscapes or country cooperatives and streets;
- Shade creation;
- Saturation of the air with oxygen and phytoncides - healing odorous substances released by spruce needles. These substances strengthen the immune system, and also protect against pests and some weeds;
- Snow retention;
- Serves for several decades without requiring renewal.
Protection of the site from the curiosity of neighbors and passers-by;
Flaws
The disadvantages are the size of the spruce roots. The root system is concentrated near the surface and extends in width to a distance of 1.5 to 3-4 m, which does not allow any planting in this radius.
note
In addition, spruces create a dense shadow, so it is better to have a fence on the north side.
Suitable spruce varieties
For hedges, you can use one variety of spruce with green, blue or yellowish needles. You can also combine several varieties with different colors of needles. The most commonly used spruce species are:
- gray;
- Eastern;
- prickly;
- Siberian;
- Serbian;
- Ordinary.
One of best trees Norway spruce is considered, which has the following advantages:
- A large number of ornamental varieties different in height, type and shape of needles;
- unpretentiousness
- Dense narrow-conical crown;
- Annual growth is 50 cm high and 15 cm wide.
No less popular is Serbian or Balkan spruce, which has:
- Narrow-conical shape that persists throughout the life of spruce;
- Bluish-green needles;
- It is unpretentious, resistant to gas and dust;
- Decorativeness is preserved even without a haircut. But if necessary, spruce easily tolerates it.
Hedge schemes
Before planting a hedge, it is better to draft it and decide on a scheme, which can be:
1. Single row (trellis).
Plants sit in one row at the same distance from each other (1 m for common spruce, 2-3 m for Serbian spruce).
2. Multi-row fence includes:
- Chess arrangement - plants are planted in a checkerboard pattern while maintaining the distance;
- Linear - plants are located opposite each other.
Spruce trees can also be used to make plantings of medium height, which are most often used to divide the territory, or a border frame for a house, flower beds, etc.
Making a hedge with your own hands
To get started, you need to buy seedlings. If you grow spruce seeds, then it will lose its decorative properties. It’s easier to buy adults at once, but it’s better to buy seedlings of 4 years old. They take root and grow very quickly, in addition, their cost is much lower than adult trees. Landing is carried out in the fall:
- First, markings are placed using a cord and pegs;
- In porridge-like moist soil, a ditch is dug up to 50 cm deep and wide, commensurate with the size of the roots, along the entire length of the hedge. In case of excessive moisture, deepen the trench by another 20 cm and fill in gravel, pebbles, etc., to create drainage;
- Throws to the bottom upper layer soil;
- From above, it is sprinkled with peat or;
- Seedlings are planted taking into account the fact that the root neck should be no more than 2 centimeters underground for common spruce and at ground level for Serbian spruce. Before planting, dry roots are removed, and the root system is straightened.
note
When planting, it is important to avoid drying out the roots of the seedlings. To do this, they can be dipped in wet clay.
hedge care
Norway spruce and Serbian spruce - unpretentious plants and does not require special care. In the first year in spring and summer, spruce should be watered, weeded and the soil loosened. Cover Serbian spruce for the winter with light breathable material. The first three years to fertilize with fertilizers in May and September. In the second year, pinching is done with special elongated garden shears to create a well-groomed appearance and enhance branching, for this the branches are cut off by half or a third. The top should not be cut off too much, as spruce growth may stop. It is better to pinch in May-June, but it is possible in the fall. After the hedge has acquired the desired shape and height, every year in the spring it should be cut with an ordinary pruner. For evenness of the haircut line, you can pull the cord. Naked holes randomly formed during the process will eventually be covered with new green shoots. Thus, over time, you can get the perfect hedge.
A spruce hedge looks special, noble and beautiful, and also purifies the air, protects the site from dust, dirt and winds. She looks good all year round and creates comfort. Among coniferous crops, spruce as a material for a living fence ranks first in popularity. Then comes pine, but it has more disadvantages.
There are a number of obvious advantages of fir hedges:
At the same time, spruce is unpretentious and practically does not require a haircut, so fences are often made from it. The disadvantage of such a fence is that almost all varieties of this tree grow slowly.
Users often search:
What kind of spruce to choose
There are many varieties, and in order for the fence to look beautiful, you need to choose the right ones for your region.
Tompa (common, European)
This is a standard spruce that is known to everyone and grows in the forests of Europe. Pyramidal dense crown with needles of different shades gives the tree a unique look. Grows up to 50 meters in height. Prefers fertile loamy and sandy soils. Loves moisture, grows hard on dry soil.
Omorika
Another name is Serbian spruce. Refers to fast growing varieties. Its purple-brown buds create an interesting decorative effect. Well suited for growing in an urban environment. Alleys and unshorn are successfully created from this variety.
Konika (Canadian, gray)
Great choice for hedges. Grows freely in North America. It got its name due to the bluish color of the needles. Looks decorative. This tree is best used to form clipped, molded hedges.
Photo: Canadian spruce - as part of landscape design Glauka Konika
The classic version of a beautiful hedge. This blue spruce which can be seen in parks and squares. Crown diameter up to 6-8 meters. Grows well in polluted air.
Eastern
It grows slowly, grows up to 65 meters. In a free state, it grows on the slopes of the Caucasus. This variety does not tolerate low temperatures, and therefore is not suitable for growing in harsh climates. Also, do not plant oriental spruce in polluted air. The needles have a dark green hue, and at a young age - golden. Likes shade, grows poorly in sunny areas.
Purple
Tall and slow growing spruce. Tolerates frost down to -35°C. Suitable for growing in harsh climates. Mature trees have a dense, broad-pyramidal crown.
Siberian
Perfect for picking from Christmas trees in harsh regions like Siberia. It loves shade, but is demanding on the composition of the soil. It grows up to 35 meters in height.
Rules for choosing seedlings
It is better to buy seedlings in a nursery or specialty store. These are cultivated trees that are more likely to take root. When choosing, it is important to consider the size: seedlings should be small. The younger the tree, the easier it is for it to adapt to new conditions.
If the seedling is in a container, then when buying, you need to make sure that it grew there. To do this, you should ask to slightly stretch the spruce. The root system with the earth should be one. If the root system is without an earthy coma, then it should be pinkish-white in color.
Photo: prickly spruce seedlings Also, the buyer should look at the cut roots. If traces of cuts are visible - spruce older than age, which is announced by the sellers.
Care
You can grow a seedling yourself. But in this case, he will need care. In the first year of care, constant loosening and hilling is necessary. It is also necessary to weed weeds and protect young trees from diseases and pests. It is recommended to water them once every two days so that the needles do not start to turn yellow. The surface root system of seedlings does not tolerate overdrying, and therefore regular watering will protect the seedling from death and help it take root.
Features of planting a hedge
To create a fence with your own hands, you need to follow all the rules for its planting and subsequent formation. To do this, pre-prepare or grow seedlings, separate the sick and weak from them and prepare the soil.
Time
Spruce hedges are best planted in the fall, when the soil is still loose and moist. In the northern regions, a hedge is planted in the spring, after the snow has melted. In spring, the best months are March-April, and for the autumn bookmarks - August-September.
Soil preparation
Spruce prefers fertile acidic or alkaline soils. Do not plant a tree in unprepared, heavy soil.
One of the following top dressings must be applied to the planting trench:
- 100 g of mineral complex fertilizer;
- a mixture of leafy, soddy land with peat and sand; two parts of turf and leafy soil and one part of peat and sand;
- part of the leafy earth, part of the turf and three parts of peat.
At the bottom of the excavated trench, you need to lay out drainage from broken brick or pebbles. Drainage layer - 20 cm. The next layer is the upper part of the excavated soil. Then the landing algorithm is as follows:
Scheme
Depends on the landing pattern appearance hedge in the end, as well as the number of seedlings that are needed for planting. Most often, two landing patterns are used: in one line or in a checkerboard pattern in two lines.
When planting fir trees in one row for a hedge 2 m high, the recommended distance between seedlings is 60-70 cm, when planting in two rows - 2-3 meters between rows.
If it is planned to create a spruce wall up to 15 meters high, then when planting in one row, the distance between seedlings should be 2-3 meters, and between rows in a checkerboard pattern - 3-4 meters.
spruce haircut
In total, two types of haircuts are used: sanitary and molding.
Sanitary pruning is done after the growth of the shoots is completed, that is, in June. It is necessary to remove all dead, diseased and weak shoots.
Shaping haircut is done once a season for simple species and 2-3 times for fast growing varieties. During the first year after planting, form cutting is not carried out, as it can slow down the growth and development of immature seedlings.
Photo: cutting a live fence with a brush cutter Rules for the formation of hedges:
- A cord must be pulled along the length of the fence, which will determine the length and width of the fence.
- Cut the tree along the top edge of the hedge, as well as along its sides.
- For a quality haircut, you must use a brush cutter, garden shears, a hacksaw.
- Side branches are best cut to a third or half the length.
- The tops are best left uncut until the tree reaches the desired length.
To give a hedge desired density and density, it is recommended to pinch the side shoots.
To make the hedge truly decorative and at the same time healthy, experts recommend:
If you know such secrets, you can get a very magnificent and beautiful hedge from an evergreen tree.
A Christmas tree in the form of a living fence will decorate any landscape design and fit into the site, regardless of its style. This is a universal type of landing that helps protect the territory not only from prying eyes, but also from dust, snow, winds, and dirt. The forest beauty-herringbone will delight more than one generation of site owners and others, since it is a durable plant, which, moreover, does not require complex care.
A spruce hedge is one of the ways to decorate the site in an interesting way, and in addition to that, to protect yourself from crossing the boundaries of the land allotment by uninvited guests. The process of growing such plants will take quite a long time, but the result will meet expectations: you will get a rather high fence, which will block the view from the street.
Planting fir trees can be done by hand, but for this you should study in more detail the features of caring for such plants so that they develop normally and do not wither.
Spruce Hedge Benefits
Aesthetic appeal is the main plus that characterizes spruce when used as the main planting material for the purpose of arranging a green fence.
In addition, there are other positive qualities:
- Evergreen;
- A spruce fence provides privacy to the owners of the site, as it forms an impenetrable fence;
- High efficiency of protection of the territory against penetration due to the large number of needles;
- The tree represents a group of perennial plants;
- If desired, the fence is grown at a high height (1.5-2 m or more).
In relation to plants of certain varieties, a haircut can be performed. The formation of the crown can be done with your own hands, the main thing at the same time is the observance of the basic recommendations for this process. And other types of fir trees, on the contrary, do not need a haircut and special care.
Overview of preferred varieties
The needles of such trees may have different shade: green, golden, yellowish, bluish. This feature allows you to create a multi-colored hedge of spruce. But for this it is necessary to use a number of the most different varieties. Main options:
For landscaping the site, the common variety is rarely used, since not all seedlings retain a good appearance, the variety does not tolerate strong compaction in planting.
Christmas tree Ordinary - is used somewhat less often than others, due to the difficulty of maintaining aesthetic appeal. The height of the trees of this variety reaches several tens of meters, the shape of the crown is cone-shaped. Branches are usually horizontally oriented or directed downwards. The tree develops best in loamy and sandy soil. Another feature is the ability to tolerate fairly low temperatures (-45 degrees).
Ayan spruce ‘Aurea’. It cuts well, loves moisture, its crown is dark gray. In group plantings, it is better to propagate by seeds.
El Ayanskaya is another variety with a cone-shaped crown. The shade of the needles is dark green. And one of the differences lies in the special arrangement of the needles of such Christmas trees (flat needles). Plants of this species tolerate cold climates well and maintain a uniform crown density even in shaded areas. The spruce does not tolerate arid conditions, but it is not afraid of a haircut.
Demanding on soil and watering, but does not tolerate too fertile soil and layers of snow on the branches.
Prickly (blue) spruce. When choosing this type of planting material, you can get a fence with a shade from green to blue. On average, the height of spruces of this species is 30 m, but there are stunted (dwarf) plants. The most suitable conditions are a hot climate. The soil is fed to ensure more intensive growth.
Serbian spruce - does not need care, has a cone-shaped crown. This variety tolerates frosty climates well.
The Serbian species of spruce does not need a haircut, you can only thin out the lower branches.
Spruce Froburg - compared with the previously considered options, it has a small height (2 m). Another feature is the location of the branches - they are directed downwards, and the longest of them reach the ground and form a coniferous carpet.
It is important even at the stage of planting the Froburg variety to organize supports for the trunk so that the tree develops strictly vertically.
Popular varieties of spruce: Canadian Konica and Canadian Sanders Blue. Their feature is the increased density of needles, as well as the correct conical shape. For this reason, a green fence based on such plants does not require maintenance.
Canadian Sanders Blue: Does not tolerate stagnant water in the soil. Grows well in sunny places. Necessary watering of the tree in the evening on the crown.
The difference between each of the options lies in the shade and shape of the needles, as well as the entire crown. Other differences: soil structure, planting conditions, the need for a haircut.
Preparation for furnishing
garden tools and planting material- that's all it takes to get the job done. If the arrangement of the fence is done by hand, you need to study the features of young and adult plantings.
The first of the options will take longer to develop, as a result, a full-height hedge of a Christmas tree will appear only after a few years. And until that time, the fence will be with significant gaps. This is the main and only drawback of young firs.
The choice of already mature plants has the advantage - a much faster formation of a full-fledged hedge of the desired height and density, since quite developed spruce trees are planted.
However, the older the plant is planted, the higher the risk that it will wither. This is due to the worst ability to adapt to new conditions for development. As a result, diseases may appear, which will lead to slow growth, wilting.
Landing details
First of all, you need to determine the period for laying the future hedge - this is the beginning of autumn, but this option is suitable for regions with a temperate climate. If planting an evergreen fence will be carried out in the northern regions, it is recommended to lay planting material in early spring.
March-April, late August-October and the winter months are considered the best period for arranging a hedge.
Provided that there have been no frosts in the winter period, and the air temperature has not fallen below +15 degrees, it is allowed to plant fir trees during this period.
Another one important feature- the soil during the laying of the fence should be saturated with excess moisture. The depth of the hole is considered sufficient - 50 cm. Its diameter is determined by the size of the root system of the planting material.
Most of these plants "do not like" compacted soil. The composition of the soil should also include sand, peat. Care for the first 2 years immediately after planting includes periodic top dressing.
Pruning: features and timing of the process
The best period is spring, however, it is allowed to perform a haircut in the fall, only this should be done before the leaf fall begins. Most often, it is only necessary to remove the bald branches, because the renewal of needles is not characteristic of Christmas trees. In addition, not all varieties need care and crown formation.
The formation of the hedge is done in the spring before the growth period, this allows the young shoots to actively grow on the sides of the tree.
After planting, it is recommended to wait 2 years, do not cut immediately. At the end of this period, the formation of the crown is carried out as follows: fresh shoots need to be cut to about a third of their length, which will help increase the intensity of the formation of new shoots. Usually they wait until the tree acquires sufficient trunk dimensions, then the top is cut off to the desired level.
Do-it-yourself crown formation must be performed at temperatures above +4 degrees. Depending on the variety, the tree is cut from 1 to 3 times per season, after which the hedge is fed.
Violation of planting technology, improper (excessive) feeding and errors in the formation of the crown of fir trees - all these factors will adversely affect the development of evergreen trees.
But the most important thing when choosing a spruce is the right choice of planting material in accordance with the structure of the soil and the climate of a particular area.
popular in landscape design enjoys a hedge of spruce. It can be seen in many summer cottages, as well as close to various organizations. A wall of green vegetation is an excellent protection of the territory from prying eyes, strong wind, dust and noise. In addition, it saturates the air with oxygen. The spruce fence looks spectacular all year round and can give the site a special appeal.
Norway spruce and its varieties
To create green hedges, many gardeners prefer the common spruce. And this is no coincidence, because today a wide variety of decorative varieties of this tree have been bred, which differ from each other in the shape of the needles, height and general appearance. Despite the differences, they all tolerate pruning perfectly.
Decorate your yard with a spruce hedge
Such trees grow well on acidic, loamy and sandy soil, but they do not tolerate prolonged stagnant water. Average duration spruce life is 300 years, and its maximum height is 50 meters. To create a living fence, it is best to choose varieties that do not exceed two meters, otherwise the green fence can turn into an impenetrable thicket.
Norway spruce does well in the shade and grows quickly in well-drained and fresh soils. During the year, the branches grow in width by about 15 cm. The needles of the tree are dark green in color, and its maximum length, depending on the variety, is 20 mm. Young seedlings do not tolerate direct sunlight so they may suffer from burns.
Before buying any particular type of spruce, you need to have a clear idea of what height the fence needs and where it will grow. For example, for a trellis-type hedge, you need to buy trees of varieties:
- Virgata;
- Acrocon;
- Ohlendorf;
- Inverse;
- Kupressina.
In this video, consider a hedge of spruce:
Such trees look good in a group planting. They have a conical crown and a good density of branches. In height, they reach from 4 to 15 cm. To plant a fence of medium-height trees, you need to buy other varieties:
- Barry;
- Wils Zwerg;
- Froburg.
The maximum height of such trees is two meters, while each variety has its own characteristics, by which it is easy to distinguish them from each other. For example, the Froburg variety has a narrow and conical crown, while the Barry grows very slowly and therefore does not need much pruning. Variety Wils Zwerg is quite easy to recognize by its weeping crown.
Thanks to a spruce fence, you can not only completely enclose the site and hide it from prying eyes, but also divide it into functional areas. For this you should use undersized varieties: Little Jam and Echiniformi. They reach a height of no more than 40 cm. There are also spruce varieties whose needles are colored not only in green color, but also, for example, in blue, yellow and even golden.
Advantages and disadvantages
Living spruce fencing looks much more interesting and aesthetically pleasing than any fence made of artificial materials. Christmas tree refers to evergreen trees, so it will delight its owner with a rich bright color throughout the year. Since there is a wide variety of varieties of common spruce, everyone can pick up suitable option depending on taste and preference.
Spruces emit special substances called phytoncides. They have a beneficial effect on the entire human body. A high fence made of Christmas trees perfectly protects against strong winds, snow and uninvited guests.
Despite a large number of advantages, this fence has disadvantages. For example, in order for it to grow to the desired size, more than one year must pass. If at improper care if one tree dies, then a hole is formed that will be difficult to quickly fix. And also such a fence needs to be cut and fertilized annually.
Rules for planting seedlings
For planting a hedge from Christmas trees, you need to use four-year-old seedlings, as they quickly take root and begin to grow well right away. But it is undesirable to acquire mature trees, because they adapt worse to new conditions and do not always tolerate pruning well. It will also not work to get a green fence from seeds, since seedlings grown in this way lose their decorative properties.
After that, you need to decide on the scheme for planting a hedge of common spruce. Most often used for this:
- planting trees in one line;
- landing in a checkerboard pattern in two rows.
Planting trees is best done in the fall, as during this period the earth is quite wet and loose. To do this, you need to mark the territory on which the green fence will pass. A thread should be pulled along the entire line of the future fence, and pegs should be inserted into the places where the trees will grow.
After that, you need to dig a trench 50 cm deep for the entire length of the hedge. Its width depends on the root system of the seedlings. The bottom needs to be well loosened. If there is excess moisture in the soil, then you need to dig a trench 20 cm deeper to make an additional drainage layer. Crushed stone, gravel and expanded clay should be poured into the bottom of the ditch. Then you need to put the top layer of soil in it, which was removed during digging. After that, the ditch should be watered abundantly.
To avoid drying out the roots of the seedlings, you should dip them in a pre-prepared talker. To do this, clay is diluted in water to a thick consistency. From seedlings, you also need to remove all dead root processes, and gently straighten the rest.
When planting a hedge in one row, you need to maintain a distance between trees of about 1 meter, and when planting in two rows - 80 cm. After that, the seedlings are carefully covered with peat or compost. During planting, it is important to ensure that the root neck of the trees is flush with the soil.
The landing site must be well tamped and watered abundantly, and then mulched with peat, bark or wood chips. If the seedlings are already quite large, then they can be cut off immediately after planting. In this case, the trees will grow not in length, but in width. After that, the growth and appearance of the hedge will depend on the further care of it.
Use spruce to decorate your yard
Hedge care features
After planting, a live spruce fence needs constant watering, especially in dry times, since the needles may begin to turn yellow and crumble from an insufficient amount of moisture near the tree. Periodically, it is necessary to loosen the ground with a hoe to a depth of 10 cm. This procedure allows you to retain moisture and nutrients in the growth zone for a longer time, as well as get rid of weeds.
During the first three years several times for warm season it is necessary to apply nitrogenous fertilizers to the soil. They will help the trees to fully reveal all the beauty. In autumn, they can be fed with phosphate fertilizers. So that the plants do not get sick, every May and October into the soil special fertilizers should be applied for coniferous trees. For preventive purposes, you can spray the planting with special preparations from pests and diseases.
In the first year, it is better not to cut unshaped seedlings, you can only remove dried or diseased branches. The maximum growth of spruce branches falls on the period from May to June, therefore, in subsequent years during this period, it is advisable to pinch the apical and lateral shoots. When you want the hedge to reach the desired height faster, it is advisable not to cut the top of the tree too much.
After the pinching, the growth of the tree in the current season practically stops, but the next year, abundant branching begins, and new buds are laid. This procedure should be carried out until the desired density of the side surfaces of the fir trees is reached.
After I bought a living spruce fence desired shape and height, only a regular haircut should be carried out. It is necessary to maintain general view. It is best to perform the procedure with special garden shears with elongated blades. Thanks to this tool, it is easy to achieve a clear, even line. You can also use garden saws.
If, after trimming the hedge, small voids or holes have formed, you should not worry. In this place, new shoots will quickly grow, which will close all problem areas.
A spruce hedge will decorate any site, but it needs proper and timely care. Although it will take more than one year to create a green fence, it will perform its functions perfectly for many decades.
In the design of landscapes, hedges are always very popular. IN last years spruce hedges came into fashion. So unusual design personal plots has a whole army of fans. A Christmas tree hedge is easy and simple to plant with your own hands, and maintaining its attractive appearance does not cause much trouble.
Suitable types of fir trees
Spruces are slow growing coniferous plants, which have great merit. They always retain the juiciness and brightness of colors, regardless of the season, therefore, even in winter time The site looks very impressive and festive.
Hedges hide boring landscapes and unsightly buildings located outside the yard from the eyes. With the help of a fence on the site, you can always arrange a corner for relaxation, where you will always participate in a relaxed and peaceful way.
Another advantage of hedges is their ability to retain snow, and the thick interlacing of branches will not allow uninvited guests to enter the site. Dense growth protects the house from gusts of wind, dirt, excessive noise and gases, and the well-known property of coniferous plantations to release phytoncides will create a favorable microclimate on the site. In nature, there are a large number of varieties of spruces, they can have the most interesting colors - for example, blue, green and yellowish.
If you combine plantings in a predetermined order, you can create a spectacular composition on your site.
However, most often, spruce is planted along the fence in our country, since this plant is maximally adapted to local climatic conditions. And a nice bonus will be the cost of seedlings, which in nurseries starts from 250 rubles (2019). However, suitable healthy young trees can always be found in forest clearings. True, you should first make sure that you are not extracting planting material in a forested area, otherwise you will face substantial fines.
Norway spruce calmly tolerates shade; in sunny areas, young plants can get burned from direct ultraviolet rays. This plant prefers sandy and loamy soils, reacts negatively to stagnant water, excessive dryness and salinity of the soil. In addition, this type of spruce lends itself well to shearing, which means that crown molding will not present any difficulty for site owners.
The fence made of ordinary spruce has served as protection for many decades, and every year it only becomes more beautiful and magnificent. To create a trellis-type hedge, varieties of olendorfi, inverse, as well as kupressin and acrocon are suitable. The height of these fir trees is 4-15 meters, the branches are very dense, they grow in the shape of a cone. The trees are quite unpretentious, therefore they get along well even with a densely planted strip.
If you are planning to get a medium height hedge, it is best to plant froburg or barry spruce, they grow up to 2 m, while the barry grows so slowly that such a hedge does not even require pruning.
The needles of young plants of these varieties have a light green tint, which looks especially stylish against the background of the dark crown of adult trees. Spruce Wils Zwerg is distinguished by a weeping crown, and the fence of these seedlings looks quite unusual and can become an adornment of any garden decor. It is better to create border and dividing lines with the help of little jam and echiniformis - these are dwarf Christmas trees, the length of which does not exceed half a meter, the crown of such plants is usually hemispherical or cushion-shaped.
Landing Rules
Planting new plants to form a green hedge near the fence is best done with the start of the dormant stage of the plants. The conifers have 2 of them: the first falls on the last decade of April-May, and the second occurs in September-early October.
Young Christmas trees that you plan to use should be dug up immediately before planting, and the less time elapses from the moment the young seedling is removed from the forest land to transplanting to a new place, the better.
Gardeners with experience recommend taking seedlings at the age of 3-4 years. As practice shows, they take root much more successfully than adult plants. It is optimal to dig up spruces immediately after rain, when the ground is moistened, ideally it should be more like slurry. Spruces are removed so that damp soil is preserved on the roots, and so that the earthen lump does not dry out during transportation, it is wrapped with polyethylene or burlap.
After the seedlings are delivered to the place, there is no need to waste time in vain. Draw a landing zone as quickly as possible and dig a trench as deep as a spade bayonet. The bottom of the pit should be softened and mixed with river sand and peat.
Every gardener knows well that any seedlings have a surface-type root system, so it reacts extremely negatively to overdrying.
After planting, the Christmas tree must be thoroughly moistened, slightly compacted and mulched.
The density and planting pattern directly depends on the type of hedge that you form. So, if you create a living border up to 50 cm high, then leave 35-40 cm between the seedlings, this distance is taken to the aisle. To form a spruce fence with a height of 1.5-2 m, about 80 cm is left between the bushes, and the first and second rows are planted at a distance of 1.5-2 meters from each other. And if your task is to decorate a spruce wall, the height of which reaches 10 meters, then it is necessary to withstand about 3-4 meters between the seedlings.
Aftercare
In order for the trees to take root well in the new soil and start growing, it is important to properly care for them.
Plantings must be watered every 5-7 days (if the weather is rainy, then this is done less frequently).
It is best to irrigate with a hose with small holes all over the surface. located at a distance of 1 m from each other. In this case, all that is required from the owner of the site is simply to pull the hose along the ephedra line and turn on the water. Soon, water will pour out of the holes and begin to actively soak into the ground near the Christmas trees.
Do not forget about dry watering - the ground near the seedlings must be constantly loosened with a hoe, deepening the tool by 10-20 cm. Young Christmas trees need nutrients, so they need top dressing:
- during the first 3 years after transplantation, nitrogenous fertilizers should be applied 3-4 times per season;
- every autumn, plants require top dressing with phosphorus-containing components;
- in May and October, compositions designed specifically for conifers should be applied.
All weeds and grass growing near plantings must be weeded out. If you deprive the spruce hedge of care, then the needles begin to turn yellow and fall off, and the stems themselves stretch.
Haircut rules
Any hedge will certainly require a haircut. Remember that a neglected view is very difficult to fix, and sometimes even impossible. Trimming trees is necessary not only to give them the correct shape. This event helps to maintain a healthy appearance and rich color of the needles. A haircut is best done in July - it is during this period that the growth of new shoots ends. To begin with, all growth is cut by a third when the trees reach right size cut off more - a couple of centimeters above the place of the first haircut. Be sure to remove shoots sticking out in all directions.
Haircut technique is not difficult. The branches are given an inclined position (in this case, the hedge will be wider from below and will eventually take the shape of a trapezoid), after which they are cut with a tool. For a spectacular look spruce hedge most often, a 3-meter plant height is maintained, after which the gardener no longer needs to spend a lot of time on further care behind your conifer, although in winter it will still be necessary to remove the entire annual growth from different sides.
Spruce will grow much more magnificent if all the buds are removed from it in March, and with regular side pruning, the spruce fence will take on an even more attractive look.
All work must be done very carefully so as not to affect the main branches. If you do not have much experience in shaping the crown, it is best to stock up on a special template or pull a rope along the entire length, which will become a guide during the haircut.
If in the course of work, out of inexperience, gaps appear through which bare branches will be visible - do not be upset, they will very quickly overgrow with new young shoots, since any pruning stimulates increased branching.
achieve correct form it will be much easier if you use quality tools. Keep in mind that a regular garden pruner won't do the job here, as it won't give the necessary leveled surface of the evergreen fence, such scissors can be used for pinching. Complete pruning should be done with petrol shears.- their sharply sharpened elongated blades evenly, quickly and effortlessly cut off all overgrown spruce branches.
Speaking of cutting the crown, one cannot fail to mention its shaping. Inexperienced gardeners most often cut so that the crown is rectangular.
This approach is fundamentally erroneous, since it prevents the full penetration sun rays to the branches located on the lower tiers.
Due to a shortage sunlight the lower needles gradually begin to dry out and fall off, exposing the trunks. As a result, the hedge loses all its decorative properties, and the functionality of plantings is significantly reduced.
