Poorly hedge, what to do

[Techno56]

We live on the end of a row of houses and one side of our garden borders a field. It's has the old hedgerow from before houses were built, part of it is (was) elm but it started dying the summer before last. It's has progressively got more and more unwell and we removed a section hoping this would stop whatever was killing it, but it hasn't.

I've got a tree surgeon to look at it and he has seen evidence of Dutch elm disease and also probable honey fungus and advised it all needs to come down apart from a section which is still fairly healthy (hawthorn and full of ivy)

We really want to replace it with native hedging, hundreds of birds live in it (although they have mostly moved to the healthy part, maybe they know more than we do!) But I am nervous to replant and risk it all just dying again.

It's about 8-9m that we will need to try and grow and eventually want it to be tall - at least 6ft probably a bit more to blend in with the living part and screen our garden.

We are so sad about it and don't know what to do for the best, species wise, planting lots of whips or trying to budget for something larger and less likely to die before getting established.

We also have roving badgers who may we'll decide to dig up small plants looking for insects etc.

Does anyone have any experience with recovering a hedgerow from disease when you can't get rid of the disease itself??

Look on the RHS web site for honey fungus resistant bushes, and don’t plant elm

Do you needmto replant straight away, or could you leave for a year-ish, and focus on getting the old dead wood out and trying to starve the fungus?

Obviously the birds wouldn't have that home but you could plan on a lovely habitat for them next year?

We will try and get as much old wood out as we can but we won't succeed in starving the fungus as unfortunately there is hedgerow on the field side that's not ours and we can't remove.

Ideally we would like to plant this spring some taller hedge plants from troughs rather than small whips, but deciding what to use is the problem.

Honey fungus resistant plants from the RHS list doesn't leave much choice and certainly not native hedging mix from the looks of things. It's such a shame.

If it is elm and infected with Dutch elm disease, then it needs to come out. Speak to the tree officer at your local council, as many of them have planting schemes for hedgerows and sometimes even give you suitable plants.

Blackthorn seems to survive in most places.

Honey fungus resistant plants from the RHS list doesn't leave much choice and certainly not native hedging mix from the looks of things. It's such a shame. You could take a risk with the “sometimes affected” tree list, which gives you more choice. Otherwise yew, which will look formal but is native.

I hadn't thought of that, thank you.

If you're lucky you may be able to catch the end of the Jubilee tree planting scheme that's been subsidising young trees, including native hedgerow. When you do replant, go for whips. Larger plants take longer to establish, and will get overtaken in growth by plants set out as whips within a few years.

You can get whips for hedging pretty cheaply and if you border farmland, there may even be a grant available. The Woodland Trust may be able to advise you. You can plant whips with guards to prevent nibbling by deer etc. Lots of native trees make good hedging that aren't elm - blackthorn, hawthorn, hazel, crab apple and dog rose are what we have chosen to replant our hedge (currently a sad mix of elm, privet and elder).

However I would say you should act fast I.e.. in the next couple of weeks, because tree planting season is over soon. Anything planted from march onwards has a reduced chance of survival so you would need to wait until autumn/winter for the next tree planting season.

Thanks all, I will have a look around for any grants and yes, we do plan on acting quickly. I didn't realise how poorly it all was until I asked a tree surgeon to come and tidy it up before the birds start nesting, we would have done it before if we had known the full extent of the issue. 😫