A hedgerow is a planted strip of shrubs and other woody plants grown closely enough that, as they mature, they begin to function as one continuous planting.
It can mark a property line or screen a view, but that does not have to be its only job. A mixed hedgerow can slow wind, help hold soil on a slope, provide flowers and fruit through much of the growing season, offer cover and food for wildlife, and give us a few useful things to harvest along the way.
Unlike a formal hedge made from one species clipped into a wall, a homestead hedgerow can contain several plants. The trick is keeping it cohesive. Choose a handful of species that suit the site, plant multiples of them, and repeat those plants through the row rather than planting one of everything.
First, Decide What the Hedge Needs to Do
The function of the planting should determine its height, width and plant choices.
For privacy or a substantial boundary, look for shrubs that branch densely and hold foliage through most of the growing season. Ninebark, aronia, red-osier dogwood and many viburnums are useful here. You can mix in elderberry or another taller, more open shrub, but it usually looks fuller when those looser plants are surrounded by denser ones.
For a lower boundary, aromatic sumac, aronia and beautyberry can give you a broad shrub layer without immediately turning the planting into a wall.
If you are primarily planting for food, elderberry, aronia, serviceberry and highbush cranberry viburnum can all be worked into a mixed hedge.
And sometimes the site makes the decision for you. A wet ditch, dry bank and woodland edge call for very different plants.
Match the Hedgerow to the Light and Soil
Full sun gives you the widest selection. Aronia, ninebark, beautyberry, elderberry and aromatic sumac can all work well in sunny hedgerows, though their moisture preferences differ.
A hedgerow running along the edge of woods may move in and out of shade. That is where plants such as spicebush and witchhazel become especially useful. Serviceberry and Pawpaw can also fit naturally into a partly shaded edge where there is room for a taller plant.
Wet ground opens up another useful group. Elderberry, red-osier dogwood, winterberry, buttonbush and several viburnums are comfortable with considerably more moisture than the average landscape shrub.
That makes a hedgerow a good way to use parts of the property that otherwise tend to be awkward. A low strip that stays damp does not need the same plants as the sunny boundary above it.
Build the Hedge Mostly With Shrubs
When we talk about layering a hedgerow, we do not mean putting a row of large shade trees behind it.
The working part of a hedge is usually shrubs.
Variation in shrub height and habit is enough to give the planting structure. A dense shrub such as aronia or ninebark can fill space close to the ground. Elderberry grows taller and can become more open underneath as it matures. Spicebush has a looser woodland form. Red-osier dogwood grows as a thicket of upright stems.
Those differences are useful.
If you like elderberry, for example, you do not have to make the entire hedge out of elderberries. Plant several, then use denser shrubs between and around them. The elderberries can rise above the planting while the lower shrubs keep the base from looking empty.
The same principle works with serviceberry, witchhazel and other large shrubs or small trees. They can appear occasionally or at the ends of the planting without becoming the entire hedge.
Repeat Plants Instead of Collecting Them
Being a plant lover and collector can be really fun, and works well in some landscapes. However five different shrubs repeated through a long planting usually make a better hedgerow than twenty different shrubs planted once each. Keep one offs to a minimum.
Repetition gives the planting visual continuity and also makes it easier to establish useful patches of fruit, flowers and cover.
You might repeat groups of aronia and ninebark through a sunny hedge, then tuck elderberries into a few wetter spots. A woodland-edge hedge might lean more heavily on spicebush and viburnum, with witchhazel appearing occasionally as a taller accent.
There is plenty of room for diversity without making every six feet of the hedge completely different.
Plan for Flowers, Fruit and Winter Interest
Once you have the structure figured out, look at the calendar.
Spicebush and serviceberry flower early. Aronia, viburnums and ninebark continue the spring bloom. Elderberry flowers later, while buttonbush can carry flowers well into summer in a wetter planting.
Then the hedge begins to change jobs.
Serviceberries ripen early. Elderberries and aronia follow later in the season. Beautyberry develops its bright purple fruit in fall, while winterberry can hold colorful berries into winter. Red-osier dogwood loses its leaves and exposes its red stems. Common witchhazel waits until fall to flower, when most of the hedgerow is winding down.
You do not need a flower every week, but combining plants with different bloom, fruit and foliage seasons keeps the planting active much longer than a single-species hedge.
If fruit is important, check pollination requirements while you are planning. Winterberry and spicebush have separate male and female plants, for example, so berry production depends on having compatible plants nearby.
Food and Medicinal Plants Fit Naturally Into the Hedge
Some of the plants that make good hedgerow shrubs also happen to be useful to us.
Elderberry is an obvious example. Aronia produces an antioxident-rich, edible berry commonly used in juice, preserves and other preparations. Highbush cranberry viburnum can add another fruiting shrub for people and wildlife to enjoy.
Common witchhazel has a long history of medicinal use, particularly preparations made from the bark and twigs. Spicebush has been used both as a culinary aromatic and in traditional herbal practice.
A hedgerow can even become an herb garden. These plants give you another reason to choose them when they also suit the site and the structure you are trying to create.
How Tight Should You Plant It?
This depends on the mature size of the shrubs and how quickly you want the hedge to close.
For a hedge-like effect, we generally want the mature canopies to overlap somewhat. Spacing every plant at its full mature width leaves a collection of individual shrubs rather than a continuous hedge.
For many medium-sized shrubs, somewhere around 3 to 6 feet apart is a reasonable starting range, but mature width matters more than a fixed number. Large elderberries should not be treated the same way as a compact aronia.
A single row works when space is tight. If you have more room and want a fuller screen, two staggered rows create density much faster. Rather than putting plants directly behind each other, offset the second row so the plants make a loose zigzag.
That staggered pattern also makes it easier to mix taller and shorter shrubs without the planting looking like separate rows.
Prepare the Whole Strip, Not Just the Planting Holes
A hedgerow is much easier to establish when the shrubs are not immediately competing with sod and perennial weeds.
We would rather clear and prepare the whole planting strip before the shrubs go in. Remove grass and problem weeds, loosen badly compacted ground if necessary, and figure out drainage before planting.
For bare-root plants, keep the roots moist until they go into the ground. Dig wide enough to spread the roots naturally rather than curling them into a narrow hole. Plant at the same depth the plant was previously growing, backfill with the native soil and water thoroughly.
Potted shrubs are planted much the same way. Keep the root flare or original soil line at grade and loosen circling roots before backfilling.
A two- to three-inch layer of mulch helps enormously during establishment. Keep it away from the actual stems.
Then water. Even drought-tolerant shrubs need consistent moisture while they are establishing their root systems.
Do Not Forget the Ground Underneath
A new hedgerow has a lot of bare ground between small shrubs.
Mulch protects that soil at first, but over time we like to let plants occupy more of that space. Sedges, low perennials and spreading groundcovers can fill the sunny or shaded edges of the hedge while fallen leaves accumulate beneath the shrubs.
Green and Gold can work nicely along a partly shaded edge. Self Heal can spread into sunnier openings. Native sedges are especially useful beneath shrubs where grass becomes difficult to maintain.
We recently wrote more about this approach in Living Mulch: Let Plants Cover the Ground.
And there is no need to rake every leaf out of a mature hedgerow. Fallen leaves protect the soil, feed the soil organisms underneath and provide overwintering habitat for insects. A hedgerow gets more useful as it begins to behave a little less like a manicured shrub bed.
To establish your plants, we do suggest mulching heavily, remembering not to mound mulch on the trunk of your tree. Creating a well, or "donut" shape is best to allow for airflow at the base of your trees or shrubs.
A Hedgerow Can Start Small
You do not have to plant a hundred feet at once.
Start with the stretch where a screen, windbreak or productive boundary would be most useful. Pick a few shrubs that genuinely suit that spot, plant enough of each to create repetition, and leave room for them to grow together.
Bare-root plants make larger projects like this especially practical because they are easy to handle and easy to plant in multiples. Potted shrubs work just as well and are useful when you are adding to an established hedge or filling particular gaps.
Our spring bare-root collection begins opening for preorder mid-October, including many of the shrubs we use for this kind of planting. It is a good time to walk the property, measure that fence line or field edge, and start figuring out what you actually want the boundary to do.
