RENOVATING HEDGES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1010, 28 June 1930, Page 30

RENOVATING HEDGES

This is a good time of the year to see to the renewal of hedge plants. When it becomes necessary to replace plants ; that have died out, great care should be taken in the introduction of a new subject. The old soil should be removed, together with the dead roots of the old plant. In the case of a plant that has succumbed to root trouble or disease this precaution is particularly necessary. To introduce a new plant in disease-infected soil would be courting further trouble. The soil should be replaced with fresh compost, suitably enriched with wellrotted manure. Inspection of drainage conditions should also be made. Most nurserymen keep a few of the popular hedge plants in Sin or loin pots for the benefit of customers requiring large specimens for filling up gaps. Although twice the price of the general stock, it pays to buy strong plants for this purpose. They already,?iave a well-de-veloped fibrous root System, and will begin to make rapid growth right : away. A smaller plant would prob- i ably be robbed by its neighbours and; perhaps become permanently dwarfed.? It is astonishing how quickly the roots i of established plants will permeate fresh soil which is kept permanently moist. When a small plant is used for 1 renewal, the special care lavished upon it ferquently proves indirectly fatal to it, because long before it is sufficiently developed to compete with its older rivals its root system is completely strangled. Watering should be carefully attended to during the coming spring and summer, and, while the amount given should be adequate to supply the young plant, it should not be sufficient to encourage extensive intrusion from the older plants. An agricultural drainpipe inserted beside the plant in a vertical position will be found useful for watering. Disease in hedge plants is often caused by poverty of soil, and the cure, as well as the preventative, in this case is to feed the shrubs by a liberal top-dressing of rich compost. Sefore applving the mulch the surface should be loosened with a fork, or it may be advisable to remove a few inches of the surface soil before the fresh -top-dressing is applied. Well-rotted manure or leaf soil is the best material for this purpose, and prior to spreading it, a dressing of mixed bonedust and superphosphates at the rate of 2oz to 4oz a square yard, may be applied. In light soils an addition of ioz sulphate of potash a square yard will prove bene-

ficial. Privet and other fibrousrooted subjects will also respond wonderfully to an application of sulphate of ammonia, which should not be applied until September or October, using 2oz cr Soz a square yard.