Pruning the Hedges Around My Pool
Another good pruning job is complete at my Bedford, New York farm - this time, on the hedges surrounding my swimming pool.
In 2018, we planted more than 170 purple columnar beech trees, Fagus sylvatica 'Dawyck Purple' along the inside of the pool fence. The columnar beech is a splendid tree with deep-purple foliage that holds its color all season long. Around the outside of the pool fence, I have a hedge of two dark-colored burgundy-black leafed specimens - Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diabolo’ and Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple' shrubs. I always try to incorporate unique and interesting plantings into my gardens - all these have superlative color and appealing form. This week, my crew gave the hedges a good pruning to keep them all healthy and looking their best.
Enjoy these photos.
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- When planning the gardens around my pool four years ago, I wanted to create a natural border along both sides of my pool fence, so I chose a dark purple color palette. These Physocarpus and Cotinus shrubs have grown quite a bit since last year – it’s hard to see the beech trees behind them.
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- Here is the inside hedge of columnar beech trees. These are fastigiate meaning their branches slope upward more or less parallel to the main stem. I knew these would be perfect around the pool, but like all garden specimens, they must be well-maintained. It was time to prune them all at least a foot.
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- The leaves of the columnar purple beech are rounded ellipses, two to four inches long and one to three inches wide, with an undulating margin and a slightly pointed tip. They are smooth and softly lustrous in the sunlight. In spring the new leaves are a vibrant, deep purple-red. As they mature in summer they become dark burgundy-purple, holding this color well through the hotter weather.
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- Physocarpus is commonly called ninebark, and is an upright, spreading, somewhat coarse, deciduous, Missouri-native shrub which is closely related to the genus Spiraea. It boasts a deep burgundy foliage with ovate to rounded, usually three to five lobed leaves that are dull green in summer changing to an undistinguished yellow in fall. Then its color veers toward bronzy red by the time the leaves fall in late November.
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- After the white flowers of the physocarpus bloom, what follows are these seed pods – a favorite food of small birds.
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- Also known as smoketree or smoke bush, Cotinus is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae, closely related to the sumacs. They are a great choice for massing or for hedges. The stunning dark red-purple foliage turns scarlet in autumn and has plume-like seed clusters, which appear after the flowers and give a long-lasting, smoky haze to branch tips.
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- In fact, the name “smoke bush” comes from this – the billowy hairs attached to the flower clusters which remain in place through the summer, turning a smoky pink to purplish-pink. I have many smoke bushes around the farm.
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- Here’s Chhiring starting to prune the outside shrubs. Pruning means to lop or cut off any superfluous branches or shoots for better-shape and better growth. These look fuller every year – in part because of our regular pruning.
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- Chhiring cuts off any dead or crisscrossing branches first. The rule of thumb when pruning is to cut the dead, diseased, damaged, non-productive, structurally unsound, or otherwise unwanted plant material. The branch on the right is dead – it is woody and hollow.
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- To remove the top, Chhiring uses our STIHL HSA 94 R Hedge Trimmer, which is ideal for making clean pruning cuts.
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- Chhiring carefully goes over the top of the shrubs with the trimmer keeping them all at the same height as the fence itself.
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- Here’s a look after a section of it is cut – it looks so much better.
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- It doesn’t take long for the ground to fill with clippings. Once all the pruning is done, Pasang rakes up all the trimmed branches…
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- And then loads them all up in our trusted Polaris vehicle, so they can be taken to the compost pile where they will decompose for next year’s garden dressing.
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- Here’s a view from the other side. They’re the perfect height and still disguises the fence very well – one cannot see it at all.
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- To ensure the pruning is perfectly straight on the beech trees, we always use a landscaping twine, so it is visible and can be pulled taut.
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- Here’s a look at one side of the newly pruned beech tree hedge – so straight all the way around.
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- These trees create such a gorgeous privacy screen around my pool.
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- I wanted the pool to look as natural as possible where I could enjoy the panoramic views of the landscape with my family and friends. At the far end of the pool I have five staddle stones. Staddle stones were originally used in the 17th and 18th centuries as support bases for granaries, hayricks, and game larders. They typically looked like giant stone mushrooms, but mine are square – a more rare and unique version.
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- The pool is so inviting. This is one of my favorite summertime areas of the farm. And the perfect place to cool off – it’s expected to be a very hot, humid week ahead.
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