How to close gaps and holes in hedges?

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Hedgerows are one of the most beautiful design elements of any site. But they require constant care and attention. Even the most zealous owners still experience various troubles with green fences. And if freely growing hedges better hide flaws of specific plants and are easier to “repair”, then with sheared fences it's not so simple. Gaps and holes destroy the functionality of the living “wall” and adversely affect its attractiveness, and bare or bald hedges are a sad sight. But any problem with due patience and zeal can be dealt with.

Problems with the structure of the hedge are no less than their solutions

Unfortunately, requiring a lot of time to achieve the goal and even more work, hedges are not protected from problems and shortcomings. The hedge will lose its attractiveness, or even gaps and gaps will suddenly appear in it, for a variety of reasons:

miscalculations in landing;
wrong choice of species;
bad winter;
damage to plants by pests or diseases;
improper care.

Especially prone to such unpleasant surprises are hedges of thuja and cypress, which are exposed after any heavy pruning and as a result of negligence can turn into an unattractive picket fence with rare greens. But there is a way out of any situation.

Let's try to consider the most common problems with the structure of hedges and how to solve them, which will help restore gaps in hedges or effectively beat them using decorative techniques.

We mask the “bare” bottoms

To begin with, let us dwell on a problem that is not so simple to deal with. Half-naked hedges of cypress and thuja - the result of too much pruning. Mowing to the lignified parts of the branches in these plants leads to exposure. The thing is that the regeneration buds in plants are laid only on young green shoots, in contrast to the same deciduous shrubs and yews. And as a result of heavy pruning, the luxurious and green hedge may not resume at all.

The only option is to try to stimulate the active growth of plants by providing them with regular watering, fertilizing and spraying over the next seasons. If the green hedge does not think to recover, remains bare, then you have several options for additional, masking solutions to this problem by methods of complicating the structure or decoration:

To plant another row of plants in front of the exposed hedge, not necessarily strict. As a masking “front”, one can consider both the lower row of other plants, and the strict line of the curly boxwood border, and the topiary plants lined up in a row. You can even create a kind of maze that will cover the bare trunks of the old hedge.
Beautifully flowering shrubs can also be used as a camouflage series, or a flower garden with tall perennials that will hide an unattractive part of the hedge can be planted under the hedge.
Install in a row airy wooden grates or other supports and plant vines (you can plant annuals every year or immediately plant full-fledged perennials).
Place a pot garden or cadres under the hedge.

We repair and update the hedge

If your hedge has suffered completely differently, gaps and holes have appeared in it, then you will have to act on a different principle. Your vibrant green wall will literally need repairs. Most often, gaps in hedges are formed as a result of:

improper planting, violation of the recommended distances during planting, as a result of which the hedge cannot "close";
disease or death of individual bushes.

Strategies for solving this problem directly depend on the size of the gaps:

A narrow gap will be easy to hide with the branches of neighboring plants in the hedge. To do this, you just need to tilt the shoots, tie them to sticks and pegs, set up supports, directing individual branches so that neighboring plants close and eventually close the hole.
If the clearance is quite large, then removing the plant debris, you can simply annoy a new plant, which gradually closes the row.

But there are much more interesting options:

cut out the gap and make a kind of curly niche or a window in the hedge (moreover, such a window can be of any shape and size, placed at any height, giving your garden rigor or, conversely, originality and unusualness);
combine a curly or sheared strict aperture with an insert on an empty place of a sheared boxwood bush or flowering shrub that will look like a living sculpture in a hedge;
carefully align the edges of the lumen and put in it a garden sculpture, a lantern, a decorative gate, etc .;
replace a part of the green wall with a fence section with other materials - lay piers of clinker bricks, build a stone column, insert a cast fence, door or wooden wattle, which will create a play of textures and illusions;
establish a support for the colorful vines in front of the lumen;
create an additional passage or niche, alcove, a place for sitting, "cut down" in the green wall.