Year 2 Onwards Hornbeam Hedge Maintenance

IHateWeeding

I am a novice gardener.

Planted some bear root hornbeam plants just over a year ago (planning 30 Meter long hedge).  Put some bark down, but I now note that the birds have had most of it.

Last year pruned back plants as per your advice. 

What could / should I do this year and in the coming years to improve the hedge further?

Dovefromabove

How's it done since you cut it back last year?  Can we see a photo?


This may be of help https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-prune-beech-and-hornbeam-hedges/

Fairygirl

They don't need much maintenance other than the odd trim. 
It'll take a few years for it to get to any size and depth if they've only been in that length of time, and it will also depend on the size they were on planting   

Whips of around 3 feet [90cm] will establish and be a decent looking hedge after about 3 or 4 years, but that will depend on your location, the site and the climate. 

IHateWeeding

They have thickened up, here you go...



Planing on watering today ;-)

Fairygirl

That's going to be a very wide hedge!
They do need well watered from the start, even if planted through winter, if you're in an area which gets low rainfall.  They would have needed watering thoroughly all last summer if that's the case too 
I never had to water mine because of that, but in drier areas, they really need plenty to get them established. 
The advantage of them over Beech, is their tolerance to moisture. They'll cope in wet sites where Beech can struggle a bit. 

Busy-Lizzie

We didn't prune ours much when it was young. When it got to the right height we then trimmed it every September using a hedge cutter. It was far too long to do it with secateurs as advised in @Dovefromabove's link above. It was dry, in SW France, on limestone and it survived drought pretty well. We watered it in the first year. There were a lot of wild hornbeams in the forest surrounding our house.

I was wondering why you've planted them in a double row like that? Ours grew reasonably wide in a single row.

Fairygirl

You can certainly plant in a double/staggered row, but you'd have them around a foot to 18 inches apart - in both directions, to get a dense hedge. 
I've always had mine in a single row too - spaced about 18 inches-2 feet apart usually. 

IHateWeeding

Busy-Lizzie said:

I was wondering why you've planted them in a double row like that? Ours grew reasonably wide in a single row.

I planted like this to get around the tree stumps (had to remove many roots in any case with a reciprocating saw).  Was trying to add the requisite (or close to it) number of plants per meter.

And yes did water throughout last year was planning to try to do it during bad spells this year as well and will trim again as suggested.