Rosemary hedge dead/dying - do I need to replace the soil once I have dug it up??

[AwesomePan]

Hedge has been growing magnificently for about 5 years, the nit started to droop, and now about half of the plants are just wood, and the remaining ones are withering.

There could be a few answers as to why ( I have been googling this), and nothing seems directly relevant. This phenomenon has commenced about the same time as the mass invasion by mini-strawerry 'ground cover' making it's way around the soil and parts of the lawn - which I didn't mind at first, but now am thinking it could be associated with the death of rosemary??

Sooo...once I dig up what's left of the hedge, ( and get rid of stawberries) should I be replacing the soil, or is this a bit OTT??

tia.

We lost a couple of rosemary plants this year due to the cold last winter

I would think replacing the soil is OTT. But I would look for vine weevil grubs in the soil when digging up the hedge. I can't see why the strawberries would kill the rosemary.

Root rot and blight look like the two main culprits of dead roasemary.

I know I killed mine with a combo of too much water and claggy soil. Digging in lots of compost to improve drainage and being less gung ho with the hosepipe seems to have helped the new ones survive.

More info here

www.ehow.com/list_7413304_kills-rosemary-plants_.html

thank you for all of this. I am tending toward a fungal infection - the plants are dying 'in a row' rather than simultaneously, which prob. rules out root rot ( as they would all be being affected at the same time) and any other environmental factors. Also it has been growing vigorously for years, and then suddenly 'bam'!!

sad day tomorrow, then. digging up the hedge - it's about 4 feet high - and I will check for weevils, tho' I read the little buggers are nocturnal AND good at camuflage.

thanks for your helps.

Look too for rosemary beetles. They killed my very well-established rosemary bush in a matter of weeks.

I will google image them and have a look tomorrow morning. Thank you.

feeling quite sad about it tbh. It was beautiful and useful, and I'd drag my hand across it in the morning on the way out to work. Hey ho.

I bet it's rosemary bettle... I've just lost my big hedge to the little blighters.
They look like black, iridescent ladybirds.
you can get a spray to kill them, but my friend swears by spreading a white sheet under the plant, shaking vigoursly and they all fall out. you need to squash or burn them

I'd be gutted too. I'm very miffed just because MIL got her carer to dig up one rosemary from my new alternate lavender\rosemary hedge, and that is just a baby hedge where I can easily fill the gap.

To have to take down a whole established row and start all over again would be awfu.l

Feedback/result:

Still don't know!

Have dug up the now-very woody stems and roots, and dug over the soil wit hno sign of the named suspects. Some of the hedge was still sprouting new shoots, so have taken LOTS of cuttings for propagating, as have my next door neighbours.....

so it's propagating in pots over summer, and when they are big and bonny next spring, they go back in.. Front of house looks oddly naked.
thanks again for assistances.