What to do in the garden for July with Pugh's Garden Village
- ontargetmedia8
- Jun 24
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 26
Our monthly column from Roger Crookes, the garden expert at Pugh's Garden Centre, gives us his top tips for growing hedges.
“We want a hedge that doesn’t get out of control, is evergreen, pretty, and can be stopped at about 6 foot high” is a popular customer request. So, is that your ideal hedge too? Well, there is some good news; it is called Lonicera ‘Baggesons Gold’.
This little beauty, is starting to take over where the infamous hedging conifers of the past left off; Beloved and I regularly see a couple of really nice low hedges of ‘Baggesons Gold’ as we stretch our legs around south Wales, hand in hand admiring all your lovely little gardens. I am bit of a champion of the domestic hedge, I would much rather see a wall of foliage than a wall of breeze blocks or a fence; foliage makes me feel good, concrete leaves me cold.
But, I am not the most important hedge lover around here – our precious Welsh wild birds and other animals are desperate for somewhere to make their homes, and domestic hedges can help make up for the fast disappearing woodlands and hedgerows. Our beloved British hedgehogs have been in decline for many years, often because of disappearing habitat, and a little evergreen hedge like Lonicera can make an attractive shelter for them.
A hedge of 1 – 2 metres high can be a real asset to your home, and it looks better and better after a few years whereas a fence often goes ‘downhill’ quickly in our wet and windy Welsh weather. We have a little ‘Baggesons gold’ hedge in our garden, which I trim once a year and it takes about half an hour … whereas painting the fence seems to go on for ever!
So if you have been avoiding hedges, and settling for fences, can I ask you to re-consider? There are several easy options for a compact hedge available and the Pugh's plants team would be happy to show some you next time you call in.
Lonicera ‘Baggesons Gold’ is not a fussy plant; I have seen them growing in sun and shade, although it is likely to grow more quickly in a sunny spot, plant them about a metre apart with plenty of good compost mixed into the surrounding soil, to give them a great start.
