Lavender hedge (n00b)

[TremoloGreen]

I'm planning to plant a mixed rosemary and lavender hedge along the border of my veg patch. I picked up some lavender plants from the bargain corner of the garden centre today £1 for a 9cm pot each. They're pretty healthy looking but a few dead bits underneath.

Would you plant them straight in the ground now or better to move them into bigger pots so they can be moved under glass when it gets cold? I was planning to dig some grit into the ground and make a mound to plant in. I'm going to plant them 3ft apart then put rosemary plants in between when they're looking hardy enough ( just going to take cuttings now). Does this sound like it will work?

If you have space, I'd keep it in the greenhouse over winter. Not because of the cold, but because of the wet (so don't water them much!!). Unless you are somewhere like the tip of East Anglia, a lot of the UK tends to be a bit soggy over winter, and that can make lavender sulk quite badly or even rot. You could give it a gentle prune now though...

Rosemary grows a LOT bigger than lavender, so you'll have to be ruthless and prune them back a lot.

It's a bit on the late side to take rosemary cuttings now, usually you would do this in summer with semi-ripe cuttings. That's stems which aren't soft and new, like you would have in spring, but leaves which have matured a bit and got firmer. You could still try though; nothing ventured, nothing gained...

Grit's a great idea, both are Med plants which hate winter wet and poor drainage.