In order for a beech hedge to perfectly fulfill its task as a privacy screen and room divider, it must be trimmed regularly. Cut care starts on the day of planting and is at the top of the care program every year. In this tutorial you will learn in detail when and how to trim a beech hedge correctly.

A beech hedge must be trimmed regularly

Table of Contents

Show all
  1. Types of cuts and dates
  2. Plant pruning instructions
  3. preparation
  4. education cut
  5. topiary
  6. care cut
  7. taper cut
  8. frequently asked Questions

    9. Cutting beech hedges from day one - types of cutting and dates

    Beeches are high on the wish list when home gardeners create a formal hardwood hedge. Planted in a row, the native deciduous shrubs form an opaque privacy screen within a few years, act as a decorative fence or are useful as a green room divider. Equipped with robust pruning tolerance, the trees take on almost any shape - under one condition: pruning begins on the day of planting and continues seamlessly in the following years. The following overview sums up when you make which cut:

    Cut Types aim Appointment Option I Appointment option II
    plant cutting dense branching from base to apex immediately after planting in February after the year of planting
    education cut gradual construction up to the final height with opaque branching mid-February to early March early June to late July
    Shape cut/main cut light-flooded, well-branched beech hedge mid-February to early March none
    care cut Preservation of a healthy form hedge without bare trees shortly after June 24 (St. John's Day) by the end of July at the latest
    taper cut revitalize aged beech hedges Late November to early March none

    Prune your beech hedge in winter if it doesn't freeze too much on the chosen date. Temperatures down to - 5 degrees Celsius are within the tolerance range. If you cut at lower temperatures, there is a risk that the plant sap released at the cutting points will freeze, expand and tear the bark tissue.

    background

    When is it cut?

    When choosing the date for the selected type of cut, legal requirements must be taken into account. There are no alternatives for a clearing and rejuvenation cut in winter, because the Federal Nature Conservation Act sets precise guidelines at this point. To protect breeding birds and nesting wild animals, only care cuts are permitted on trees between March 1st and September 30th, which are limited to this year's growth. From October 1st to March 1st you may rejuvenate and trim a hedge, provided that it has been ensured in advance that there are no wild animals hibernating in it.

    Plant pruning sets the course - step-by-step instructions

    Autumn is the best time to plant a beech hedge. At this time of year, tree nurseries offer bare-root young plants from a purchase price of 1 euro. Beech trees planted in September and October take root in good time before the first frost and start the first season with a vital growth advantage. Once all the beech bushes are lined up, a vigorous pruning rounds off the planting work. This is how you proceed professionally when pruning plants:

    • Sharpen and clean secateurs
    • Cut back unbranched shoots by half, as illustrated below
    • Remove damaged branches completely or shorten to healthy wood

    An amateur gardener devotes himself to a for the first time plant cutting, the severe pruning hurts his soul on the first day. However, you should make up your mind to do so, because the resulting advantage will have years of growth implications. At each interface there is a long-lasting sap. The growth of all shoots underneath is then stimulated, so that the deciduous shrub branches out bushy and compact from the base. The pruning of a beech hedge should be completed by the end of February of the following year at the latest.

    Prepare the hedge cut properly - you should pay attention to this

    The best tool for trimming a beech hedge is an electric hedge trimmer. (€77.00) If the hedge is very long, the power cable becomes an obstacle. From a length of more than 10 meters, the use of a petrol-powered hedge trimmer is recommended. Battery-powered models are primarily suitable for small hedges due to their limited performance. Manual hedge trimmers have gone out of fashion for trimming a beech hedge due to the tedious work involved. Regardless of the hedge trimmer model used, the following preparatory work must not be neglected:

    • Check all safety precautions on electric and petrol hedge trimmers
    • Sharpening manual hedge trimmers
    • Clean the blades and cutter bars carefully and disinfect with alcohol
    • Put on safety goggles and work gloves

    During the preparatory work, please note that dirty hedge trimmers are one of the most common causes of the spread of plant diseases and pests. If you clean the cutting blades before and after cutting, pathogens don't stand a chance.

    Training a beech hedge conically - instructions for training pruning

    In view of a growth rate of up to 50 centimeters per year, you are not allowed to take a breather when trimming the hedge after the plant has been pruned. To ensure that your new beech hedge develops into an elegant, harmonious feast for the eyes, training pruning is on the program from the late winter of the second year of growth. On the way to the desired height, give your beech hedge a conical shape with a narrow crown and broad base, as shown in the figure below. In this way, the lower leaves and shoots also catch enough sunlight so that the hedge does not become bare. This is how the educational cut succeeds:

    • Strings stretched between wooden pegs for orientation
    • With a stretched string, mark the broader base below and the narrower crown above
    • The taller the hedge, the wider the base
    • Cut the sides according to this pattern as well

    Raise the deciduous hedge in several stages to the desired growth height. To do this, leave 5 to 10 centimeters of growth with each cut. This pruning slows down the flow of juice and directs it to the side shoots. A 200 centimeter high privacy hedge thrives reliably opaque if you during the training phase twice a year grab the scissors.

    tips

    Spray your beech hedge with water from a cut. A little moisture on the leaves and shoots reduces the formation of dust, optimizes the cut and keeps the hedge trimmer sharp for longer.

    Cutting beech hedges in February - instructions for shaping

    In practice it has been found that a beech hedge grows denser and more evenly if the topiary takes place in February. The advantages of this early cutting time are obvious. The bushes are not yet full of juice, so that they can easily cope with a heavy cut. Due to the longer-lasting regeneration, growth does not start until May, so that the hedge is accurate and well-groomed until then. How to skilfully cut a beech hedge into shape:

    • Tension cords for orientation to maintain trapezoid shape
    • Hedge sides: Keep cutter bars parallel and move out of your shoulders with straight arms
    • Incision: from bottom to top
    • Hedge crown: In a horizontal position, swing the cutter bar back and forth from your back
    • Cutting direction: from left to right or from right to left

    Always position yourself so that your gaze is directed towards the uncut hedge areas. The more you move your arms while cutting, the more uneven the cut will be.

    digression

    Cut neighboring plants

    The shadows cast by neighboring plants can also cause unsightly gaps in a regularly trimmed beech hedge. Therefore, prune neighboring plants that are too large and put your hedge in the shade. You can close large holes with a simple auxiliary construction. Connect adjacent branches with thin bamboo sticks and plant ties so that the gaps are bridged. At the same time, cut the surrounding shoot tips a little. Since beeches happily sprout from old wood, the holes close quickly. You can then remove the temporary bridges again.

    Impeccably groomed in autumn and winter - that's how grooming works

    The ideal time window for the second pruning of the year traditionally opens on June 24th, St. John's Day. Trim your beech hedge until the end of July in shape again, so that the well-groomed appearance is maintained in autumn and winter. Before pruning, please inspect the hedge for nesting birds. If you find something, postpone the appointment until the feathered hedge dwellers have finished their breeding business.

    The cut differs from the shape cut in winter in that you at least a third of this year's growth will not be cut. The summer care cut pursues the goal of releasing the beech hedge with a flawless appearance in the autumn and winter.

    Do not cut off the entire annual growth. Some of the fresh leaves ensure that your beech hedge has sufficient reserves of nutrients for a dense, healthy foliage for the next year.

    Revitalize aged beech hedges - instructions for the rejuvenation cut

    If the pruning and pruning fail over many years, every beech hedge turns into an overgrown, unsightly undergrowth. This is no reason for a clearing. With a makeover cut, turn back time and bring the green wall back into shape. Ideally you go in stages as illustrated in the figure below. This care allows the deciduous shrubs to regenerate between cuts. How to do it right:

    • Best time: late November to late February/early March on a frost-free day
    • First stage: cut back one side of the hedge to short shoots with at least one branch
    • Second stage: Shorten the top by half or a third and radically cut back both flanks
    • Third stage: trim the second side of the hedge except for small stubs with one or two side branches
    • After each stage, fertilize the beech hedge organically with compost

    Alternatively, eliminate a leg by trimming the top during the first leg and the flanks in conjunction with the next leg. The shortening to two levels can be considered if it is a beech hedge that is only slightly aged. In this case, it is up to your sense of proportion whether you actually have to cut the height by half or leave it at a third. Act according to the rule of thumb here: the higher the proportion of dead wood, the more extensive the regeneration cut.

    Rejuvenate an old beech hedge in 3 stages. In the first year, cut back one side of the hedge to a stub with a side branch. In the second year, truncate the height. The other flank follows in the third year.

    frequently asked Questions

    Which plants can I plant under my beech hedge? A strip 50 centimeters wide lies fallow in front of the hedge.

    With a beech hedge with half a meter of space in front, you have plenty to choose from when designing an underplanting. A natural combination of bulb flowers for the spring aspect, blooming summer perennials and decorative foliage perennials is recommended. Snowdrops, tulips and daffodils open the floral dance, followed by sky-blue Caucasus forget-me-nots and red elfin flowers. Impressive hostas, colorful purple bells and magnificent bergenias round off the floral base for the beech hedge impressively.

    Which beech species is best suited as a hedge plant?

    The native European beech (Fagus sylvatica) ranks at the top of the list of recommended hedge plants. European beeches tolerate shade and pruning, wear a dense foliage and can live up to 400 years. The deciduous shrubs penetrate the topsoil intensively, which guarantees reliable stability. The premium variety is the copper beech 'Purpurea', which impresses with its deep red leaf sprouting.

    The 3 most common mistakes when trimming hedges

    If a beech hedge does not meet expectations, 3 typical pruning errors are usually responsible. The following overview summarizes the most common mistakes when cutting a deciduous hedge with tips for solving the problem:

    error annoying result correction
    pruned too late in the fall fresh shoots with significant frost damage Cut back frozen shoots at the end of February
    top-heavy hedge shape with a broad crown and narrow base rapid bareness from below due to lack of light at the base Education of the hedge to a trapezoidal shape
    crooked hedge edges crooked hedge shape henceforth tighten cords for orientation

    The experts at the Saxon State Institute for Horticulture draw attention to another omission. When pruning in summer around St. John's Day, home gardeners cut back deciduous hedges too much, such as a beech hedge. At least a third of this year's increase should remain. The fresh leaves make an important contribution to building up nutrient reserves for next year's growth.

    youtube

    tips

    Do you prefer to cut your beech hedge with an electric hedge trimmer? Then lay the power cord back over your shoulder. In this way, the cable cannot be accidentally severed in the heat of the moment.

Category:

Garden design