In order for a beech hedge to perfectly fulfill its role as a privacy screen and room divider, it must be trimmed regularly. Pruning care begins on the day of planting and is at the top of the care program every year. In this tutorial you will learn in detail when and how to properly trim a beech hedge.
How do I cut a beech hedge correctly?
To trim a beech hedge correctly, start cutting on the day of planting and carry out regular training, shaping and care pruning. Concentrate on the correct shape, the timing of the cut and the legal requirements.
Cut beech hedges from day one – cutting types and dates
Beech trees are at the top of the wish list when home gardeners create a formal deciduous hedge. Planted in a row, the native deciduous shrubs form into an opaque privacy screen within a few years, act as a decorative fence or are useful as a green room divider. Equipped with a robust tolerance to pruning, the trees can take on almost any shape - under one condition: pruning care begins on the day of planting and continues seamlessly in the following years. The following overview gets to the point when you should make which cut:
| Cut Types | Target | Appointment option I | Appointment option II |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plant cutting | dense branching from base to tip | immediately after planting | in February after the year of planting |
| Educational Cut | gradual construction up to the final height with opaque branches | Mid-February to early March | beginning of June to end of July |
| Topiary/main cut | light-flooded, well-branched beech hedge | Mid-February to early March | none |
| care cut | Maintaining a he althy, shaped hedge without baldness | shortly after June 24th (St. John's Day) | no later than the end of July |
| Rejuvenation cut | Revitalize aging beech hedges | End of November to beginning of March | none |
If you prune your beech hedge in winter, it should not freeze heavily on the chosen date. Temperatures down to -5 degrees Celsius are within the tolerance range. If you cut at lower temperatures, there is a risk that plant sap released at the interface will freeze, expand and tear the bark tissue.
Background
When will it be cut?
When choosing a date for the chosen type of cut, legal requirements must be taken into account. There are no alternatives for thinning and rejuvenation in winter because the Federal Nature Conservation Act sets precise guidelines at this point. To protect breeding birds and nesting wild animals, only maintenance pruning is permitted on trees from March 1st to September 30th, which is limited to this year's growth. From October 1st to March 1st, you can rejuvenate and thin out a hedge, provided you have ensured in advance that there are no wild animals hibernating in it.
Pruning sets the course – step-by-step instructions
Autumn is the best time to plant a beech hedge. At this time of year, tree nurseries offer bare-root young plants starting at a purchase price of 1 euro. Beech trees planted in September and October root in time before the first frost and start the first season with a vital growth lead. If all the beech bushes are in a row, a vigorous pruning rounds off the planting work. This is how you proceed expertly when pruning plants:
- Sharpening and cleaning secateurs
- Cut back unbranched shoots by half, as shown in the illustration below
- Remove damaged branches completely or shorten them to he althy wood
If a hobby gardener dedicates himself to aplant pruningfor the first time, the heavy pruning on the first day hurts his soul. Nevertheless, you should bring yourself to do it, because the resulting advantage will have an impact on growth for years to come. Along-lasting sap buildup occurs at each interface The growth of all shoots underneath is then stimulated, so that the deciduous shrub branches bushy and compactly from the base. The planting of a beech hedge should be completed by the end of February of the following year at the latest.
Prepare hedge trimming correctly – this is what you should pay attention to
The best tool for cutting a beech hedge is an electric hedge trimmer. If it is a very long hedge, the power cable becomes an obstacle. If the hedge trimmer is longer than 10 meters, it is advisable to use a petrol-powered hedge trimmer. Battery-operated models are primarily suitable for small hedges due to their limited performance. Manual hedge trimmers have fallen out of fashion for cutting beech hedges due to the strenuous work involved. Regardless of the hedge trimmer model used, the following preparatory work must not be neglected:
- Check all safety precautions on electric and petrol hedge trimmers
- Sharpening manual hedge trimmers
- Clean blades and knife bars carefully anddisinfect with alcohol
- Put on safety glasses and work gloves
When carrying out the preparation work, please note that dirty hedge trimmers are one of the most common causes of the spread of plant diseases and pests. If you clean the cutting blades before and after cutting, pathogens have no chance.
Training beech hedges conically – instructions for training pruning
Given a growth rate of up to 50 centimeters per year, you are not granted any breathing space when trimming the hedge after planting. So that your new beech hedge develops into an elegant, harmonious feast for the eyes, training pruning is on the program from late winter of the second year onwards. On the way to the desired height, give your beech hedge aconical shape with a narrow crown and wide base, as shown in the image below. In this way, the lower leaves and shoots also capture enough sunlight so that the hedge does not become bare. This is how the parenting process works:
- For orientation, stretch cords between wooden pegs
- Using a stretched string, mark the wider base at the bottom and the narrower crown at the top
- The higher the hedge, the wider the base
- Cut the sides according to this pattern
Trow the deciduous hedge in several stages to the desired height. For this purpose, leave 5 to 10 centimeters of growth with each cut. This cut slows down the flow of sap and directs it further into the side shoots. A 200 centimeter high privacy hedge will thrive reliably and opaquely if you use the scissors twice a year during theupbringing phase.
Tip
Spray your beech hedge with water from one cut. A little moisture on leaves and shoots reduces dust development, optimizes cutting and keeps the hedge trimmer sharp for longer.
Cutting beech hedges in February - instructions for topiary
In practice it has been shown that a beech hedge grows denser and more evenly if topiary takes place in February. The advantages of this early cutting time are obvious. The bushes are not yet full of sap, so they can easily cope with a strong cut. Due to the longer regeneration, growth does not begin until May, so that the hedge appears accurate and well-maintained until then. How to skilfully cut a beech hedge into shape:
- Tighten cords for orientation to maintain the trapezoid shape
- Hedge sides: Hold the blade bar parallel and move it from your shoulders with your arms stretched
- Cutting guide: from bottom to top
- Hedge crown: Swing the knife bar back and forth from your back in a horizontal position
- Cutting guide: from left to right or from right to left
Always position yourself so that your gaze is directed towards the uncut hedge areas. The more you move your arms while cutting, the more uneven the cutting image becomes.
Excursus
Cutting plant neighbors
The shadows cast by neighboring plants can also cause unsightly gaps in a regularly trimmed beech hedge. Therefore, trim any neighboring plants that are too tall and will overshadow your hedge. You can close large holes with a simple auxiliary construction. Use thin bamboo sticks and plant ties to connect adjacent branches so that the gaps are bridged. At the same time, cut the surrounding shoot tips a little. Since beech trees sprout happily even from old wood, the holes close quickly. You can then remove the temporary bridges again.
Flawlessly groomed into autumn and winter - this is how the grooming cut works
The ideal time window for the second pruning of the year traditionally opens on June 24th, St. John's Day. Trim your beech hedge againby the end of July so that its well-groomed appearance is maintained in autumn and winter. Before you start pruning, please check the hedge for nesting birds. If you find what you are looking for, postpone the appointment until the feathered hedge dwellers have finished breeding.
Pruning differs from topiary in winter in that you do not cut at leasta third of this year's growthThe aim of summer pruning is to leave the beech hedge with a flawless appearance into autumn and winter.
Don't cut off the entire annual growth. Some of the fresh leaves ensure that your beech hedge will have sufficient nutrient reserves for a dense, he althy foliage next year.
Revitalizing an aging beech hedge - instructions for rejuvenation pruning
If shape and care pruning fails over many years, every beech hedge turns into an old, unsightly bush. That is no reason for deforestation. With a rejuvenation cut you can turn back time and bring the green wall back into shape. Ideally, you should proceedin stages, as shown in the figure below. Thanks to this care, the deciduous bushes can regenerate between cuts. How to do it right:
- Best time: end of November to end of February/beginning of March on a frost-free day
- First stage: cut back one side of the hedge except for short shoots with at least one branch
- Second stage: Shorten the top by half or a third and radically cut back both flanks
- Third stage: trim the second side of the hedge down to small stubs with one or two side branches
- After each stage, fertilize the beech hedge organically with compost
Alternatively, delete a stage by cutting back the top during the first stage and the flanks in conjunction with the next stage. Shortening it to two stages is an option if it is a beech hedge that is only a little old. In this case, it is up to you to decide whether you actually need to shorten the height by half or whether you can leave it at a third. Follow the rule of thumb here: the higher the proportion of dead wood, the more extensive the rejuvenation cut.
Rejuvenate an old beech hedge in 3 stages. In the first year, cut one side of the hedge back to stubs with a side branch. In the second year, shorten the height. In the third year the other flank follows.
Frequently asked questions
Which plants can I plant under my beech hedge? A 50 centimeter wide strip lies fallow in front of the hedge
With a beech hedge with half a meter of space at the front, you can make use of the full range when designing underplanting. A natural combination of onion flowers for the spring aspect, flowering summer perennials and decorative foliage perennials is recommended. Snowdrops, tulips and daffodils open the floral dance, followed by sky blue Caucasus forget-me-nots and red elf flowers. Imposing hostas, colorful purple bells and magnificent bergenias impressively round off the floral base for the beech hedge.
Which type of beech is best suited as a hedge plant?
The native European beech (Fagus sylvatica) is at the top of the list of recommended hedge plants. European beeches tolerate shade and pruning, have dense foliage and can live up to 400 years. The deciduous bushes root intensively through the topsoil, which guarantees reliable stability. The premium variety is the copper beech 'Purpurea', which impresses with deep red leaf shoots.
The 3 most common mistakes when trimming hedges
If a beech hedge does not meet expectations, three typical cutting errors are usually responsible. The following overview summarizes the most common mistakes when cutting a deciduous hedge with tips for solving the problem:
| Error | annoying result | Correction |
|---|---|---|
| cut too late in autumn | fresh shoots with significant frost damage | Cut off frozen shoots at the end of February |
| top-heavy hedge shape with a wide crown and narrow base | rapid balding from below due to lack of light at the base | Training the hedge to a trapezoid shape |
| crooked hedge edges | crooked hedge shape | from now on strings are stretched for orientation |
The experts at the Saxon State Institute for Horticulture draw attention to another omission. During summer pruning around St. John's Day, home gardeners cut back deciduous hedges, such as a beech hedge, too much. At least a third of this year's growth should stop. The fresh leaves make an important contribution to building up nutrient reserves for next year's growth.
Hecke richtig schneiden: 4 Tipps für die perfekte Hecke
Tip
Do you prefer to cut your beech hedge with an electric hedge trimmer? Then place the power cable backwards over your shoulder. This way the cable cannot be accidentally cut in the heat of the moment.
