Hedging Your Bets

Leaves are unfurling everywhere, adorning our neighborhoods with the fresh green foliage of a new year. Trees and shrubs offer beauty, provide cooling shade and noise reduction for us humans, and create important habitats and food sources for birds and other creatures.

Leaves also provide a natural privacy screen if they are in the right place. Maybe you wish you didn’t have to see your neighbors and put on proper pants every time you step out to prepare something on the grill. Perhaps it’s time to plant some sort of privacy hedge, but you’re not sure what would work best. A nice, straight line of evenly matched Leyland cypress has crossed your mind. You’ve seen that solution several times in the neighborhood. You noticed that the fellow down the block did that three years ago, and it looked good for a while. Then a few of the trees started browning out, and now it reminds you of a boxer who has had a few teeth knocked out. You wonder if there is something better out there.

Planting Thickets instead of larger containerized plants has some notable attractions and advantages compared to container-grown plants. Thickets are cheaper and easier, they grow fast, and there is a near certainty of success if just a few rules are followed. In addition to those three things, you also get a landscape bursting with diverse plant species, and if you choose natives plants (which elevates the whole endeavor to its highest value) you will provide important habitat to birds and other small creatures. You will be helping to heal Earth.

What are the benefits of planting a Thicket?

1. They are Cheap and Easy

Sapling plants are a fraction of the cost of container-grown plants, and you get a lot of them. Saplings are young plants, perhaps 1 to 3 years old. Planting the saplings is a quick process that is hard to get wrong. Just ensure they are placed root-side down! You need only a few basic digging tools. Container-grown plants require additional preparation time to rectify root issues, and they demand a lot of attention after planting to ensure they receive enough water in their first season. The Thicket saplings don’t need much, if any, watering, except perhaps immediately after planting if it’s warm. Saplings are surprisingly resilient, adapt rapidly, and need little care aside from protection against browsing animals and lawn mowers, as well as a good layer of arborist wood chips. You will have some ongoing maintenance, primarily weeding and some deer and rabbit protection at first, but this will diminish once the Thicket fills in.

2. They Grow Fast

While saplings may not look very impressive compared to container-grown plants, they quickly make up for it due to their innate vigor. They adapt to their planting location very quickly. They have strong root systems because their roots have not been deformed by crowding and circling in containers; thus, they are ready to take off. They will catch up with and surpass their container-grown relatives surprisingly quickly.

The photos below show the progression of a Thicket from planting to just over 2 years after installation.

3. They are Resilient and Lush

You gain a landscape of resilience through diversity. That sounds like a lot, but it’s easy to understand. Perhaps you’d like a privacy Thicket to screen an area that’s 8 feet by 60 feet (480 sq. ft.). You might start with 100 to 120 saplings, comprising maybe 10 to 25 species. That’s a lot of plants!

Not all of the plants will thrive and mature. Like in natural ecosystems, some shrubs might be better suited to the planting area than others. They will compete, and the strongest specimens of various species will thrive and grow together. They start to form an ecological community, sharing nutrients through connected roots and even share information about pests through chemical communication.

You might start with many specimens from 20 species and end up with some showy red buckeyes with patches of densely leaved wax myrtle interspersed with beautyberry. Tucked in amongst several kinds of native viburnums, a few blueberries and Chickasaw plums provide a tasty mouthful. The possibilities are many!

Unlike the conundrum of the missing cypress in the hedge example we started with, some losses in a Thicket won’t really be noticed. If some gaps appear, there are many replacement candidates to consider, either more of those that are thriving, or something new that’s caught your eye.

4. They Help Heal Earth

When you observe the flash of a cardinal’s wing, the cheerful calls of the wren, and the lazy hums of the summer bees, the experience is filled with beauty and delight. According to Cornell Lab, we have lost 2.9 billion birds in North America since 1970. That’s 1 in 4 birds. It’s hard to even wrap your head around that. Native shrubs will provide cover for birds and possible nesting sites for many species, and they also host the caterpillars and other insects that birds rely on to raise their nestlings.

Or we can plant a Thicket for you! Call Leaf & Limb today to start creating your private grilling paradise, and of course, help heal the Earth by providing a home for our feathered friends. Send us a message to schedule a time to meet with one of our Treecologists.