I have a young beech hedge that’s becoming overrun with weeds. Could you please recommend the best way to deal with them? I’d prefer not to have to resort to using weedkiller, if possible.
Marie K, Co Carlow
As resilient, opportunistic plants that are happy to take advantage of any suitable growing spot, it’s not unusual for weeds to make themselves at home in a young hedge. Tough perennial species such as scutch, buttercup, dock and ground elder in particular can quickly colonise bare soil, competing with a young hedge for nutrients, water and light. The problem is generally worse with deciduous species such as beech that lose their leaves over winter, providing more of an opportunity for weeds to get a foothold.
For this reason, some gardeners such as to plant young hedging into a woven weed-suppressant fabric such as mypex with holes or slits cut into it to accommodate their root balls. This can be effective to a certain degree, but is bad for soil health and problematic as the hedge matures. Weeds also inevitably find their way through the planting holes and are then difficult to dig up.
RM Block
Others prefer to use a combination of hand-weeding, hoeing and mulching to keep weeds under control. Carried out regularly, this is more time consuming but effective and more nature-friendly. Use a good hand tool suitable for getting into tight spaces (fruithillfarm.com stock a great one, called the Handy Weeder) and a decent oscillating hoe to do this, taking great care not to accidentally damage your hedge’s young root system.
Any freshly weeded ground should then be covered with a generous organic mulch of well-rotted manure, home-made garden compost, leaf mould or a commercially produced product designed for this purpose (see geeup.ie, enrich.ie, and envirogardenandhome.com), applied to a depth of 7cm. Make sure to keep it out of direct contact with the hedging plants to avoid problems with disease.
Mulching in this way also helps to lock in nutrients and moisture, nurturing soil health, protecting against drought and extremes of cold, and resulting in strong growth. Alternatively, you could also try using cardboard as a weed-suppressant mulch, either on its own or beneath the organic mulches mentioned above, again making sure to keep it out of direct contact with the hedging plants. This will break down over time but does a good job in the meantime of helping to suppress weedy growth.
The good news is that as your beech hedging grows and matures, it will naturally begin to suppress weeds itself by outcompeting them for light, water and nutrients.
