laura6750
Newly Registered
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 9:24 pm
Location: Ontario

damaged cedar hedge

Bought house, cedar hedge was damaged. The previous owner hired someone to trim the hedge and he came home to the hedge cut down (a lot). Not sure if the hedging is good or not. The hedging was cut two summers ago. When we bought the house this summer, the middle of the hedging was dead, however the ends of the branches were alive with greenery. Will the hedging ever grow back? Also, there is weeds, etc growing with the hedging, what do we do? The hedging was there for thirty years and before it was cut it was about 7', now it might be 3'. Not sure what we should do keep it as it or dig it up. Also, the hedge is in the front of our property next to the road, so it gets a lot of salt damage. :(

Newt
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1868
Joined: Tue May 25, 2004 10:44 pm
Location: Maryland zone 7

Laura, without pictures it would be difficult to say. Can you take some pics and post them on a site like photobucket for us to see? Take at least one or two close-ups of the branches so we can positively id it.

Arborvitae is a cedar. From this site:
https://www.emmitsburg.net/gardens/articles/frederick/2003/prune_evergreen.htm
For those of us with plants that need some reining in, there is a basic rule of thumb for ever-greens: Sun-loving conifers, those whose needles all need sun, can be pruned annually, but only gently within the living green foliage. This type of ever-green does not have green needles in the interior of the plant. Most do not even have growing buds on interior branches. As a result, if you prune that plant hard, into old wood, once it has become extremely over-grown, you will end up with an ugly brown bare spot in your tree or shrub. Most junipers and arborvitae fall into this category.
Newt

opabinia51
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 4659
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:58 pm
Location: Victoria, BC

I think I have a pretty good picture in my mind of what has happend to your hedge. Take the weeds out by hand. The inside of hedges is often defoliated but, it does not mean that it is dead.

If there is greenary on the outside of the plant, then it should be fine. What you want to do is encourage more greenery. So, in early spring (after the last frost) fertilize your hedge with an organic fertilizer.

I prefer well rotted manure or compost. What works best (if you still have any) rake up any deciduous leaves and spread them around the hedge beneath the foliage (best of mulched first, use the lawnmower). Top this with manure.

Another less intensive option to to fertilize with liquid fish fertilizer (though, the with above "sheet compost" method; the trees will be fed all year) and with this method you'll have to repeat several times during the year.

laura3278
Newly Registered
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Aug 19, 2007 7:33 pm

It's me again. The cedar hedge seems to be still alive. It have evergreen leaves. The outside is full of green leaves. The inside main trunk and some branches are dead or semi-dead. There is a lot of weeds and other shrubs starting to come up thru the hedge.
First, it would be a lot of work to tear up the hedge, so we would like to save them. I think it needs to be prune. How to do I get it looking great again. Plus, it is next to a busy street and in the winter time it gets a lot of salt on the tree. A couple of leaves on the lower branches are brown.



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