09/25/2024
Here's a little hedge replacement job we started back in late spring. It's a pretty simple replacement, but read on to learn the 'why' behind the species swap and the changes we made to the bed to give the new trees what they need to thrive.
Our client's Western Redcedar (Thuja plicata 'Excelsa') hedge was struggling; we watched another tree or two perish each year. These trees have a very shallow rooting habit, making them prone to damage and sudden death during the periods of drought and peak hot temperatures we experience on eastern Van Isle more and more often.
Upon closer inspection (I wish I had taken photos) the builder also installed this hedging into a dense clay soil, pinned landscaping barrier over the soil's surface and ran only a single drip line along the centre of the bed, encouraging root development down this single line only. This is an excellent formula to ensure an impenetrable environment - a sort of perpetual dead zone - free of necessary oxygen and nutrients essential to root development and plant growth - and this on top of planting a rather fragile hedging species. Every single root the trees grew were woven into a thick mat in the landscaping barrier along the soil's surface - not a single tree threw a root downward in search of nutrients or water. There were none to be had.
Step one is to plant the right plant in the right place. We removed the struggling hedge and the landscaping barrier, selected and planted a drought-tolerant evergreen species - a dwarf Portuguese Laurel (Prunus lusitanica 'Lo**ta') and top dressed the bed with 3" of a nutritious, free-draining soil blend. We then completed the drip irrigation by moving it away from the new trunks and adding additional line, redistributing the water source for the new trees to encourage them to root outward in search of that water, quickly establishing a resilient hedge that can handle drought. We then finished the bed with a coarse mulch to cover the drip lines and minimize water loss due to evaporation. Now its up to the little laurels to do their thing!
