Top left: Kensington has utilised hedges to demarcate their compounds among other things. PHOTO/Ismail ezala
With its lustrous, mature and green hedge, one house stands out in the concrete jungle of Buziga Hill.
While the rest of the mansions on both sides of the avenue look imposing and almost impersonal, the natural-hedged house has a welcoming, homey feel to it.It is a beautiful blend of modern homes and a throw-back to a bygone era.
The well-manicured and terraced hedge gives the whole avenue a breath of fresh air and breaks the monotony similar high concrete walls. While the natural hedge’s aesthetics cannot be over stressed, what comes one’s mind is whether it will be able to offer the same protection against intruders as the perimeter walls do.
Security
While the hedge is common in secure areas, in urban areas, one would need an intruder-proof one. If you want to keep intruders out, you may need a dense, difficult to penetrate hedge with thorns. Thorny plants such as holly, rosa rugose, needle bush, Spanish bayonet (a spine-tipped yucca) or prickly pear cacti are effective deterrents. A good rule of thumb is to maintain the height of hedges and shrubs to about that of ground floor windowsills. This physical and psychological barrier is high enough to deter most burglars but low enough to ensure visibility.
It is easy to see how much more difficult it would be to climb over this hedge than for instance climbing over a concrete one. The thorns and the wobbliness of this hedge work as a good deterrent.
Mpagi Godfrey, operations manager in charge of service and maintenance at Ssekanyolya Security Systems says it is possible to have a secure hedge.
The benefit of planting an intruder proof hedge is that it creates a living, breathing barrier that will continue to grow and strengthen as it is maintained. Also, the majority of thorn bushes for security are relatively low maintenance and only requires pruning once or twice a year. “A good hedge is much more cumbersome to climb over compared than a concrete wall,” he notes.
However, he notes that it is easy for intruders to pass through some hedges even without making a sound.
Mpagi adds that there is a way to make a hedge completely secure, he says, “one would need to add a free-stand electric fence (the kind used of animal farms) in between the steel chain link construction and the bamboo hedge. This would be able to stop an intruder cutting through.”
Garden plants
According to professional gardener Simon Singa, concrete and brick perimeter fences sometimes cut off air for garden plants. “A solid wall fence can cut off air for garden plants, especially when the said plants are planted too close to the fence. This makes it much more difficult to keep a green garden. This would not be the case with a hedge,” he says.
A hedge means much cleaner air for the family. Not only does it allow air to pass through freely, a hedge manufactures life-giving oxygen and contributes to the improvement of health of the inhabitants.
Mpagi admits that on top of hedges being kind to garden plants, they also add a much more beautiful and lively ambience to a home. “A hedge is environmentally friendly, and achieves aesthetics that a wall fence will not,” he says.
Maintenance
Andrew Ndawula Kalema, a bamboo farmer and expert gardener says that bamboo hedges are very reliable fences in a home. “As long as it is timed, watered, bamboo should last as long as a wall fence, probably longer. And as long as it is trimmed regularly, it will not lose its neatness,” he says.
While planting, mark out a straight or curved line for the hedge to follow. Some choose to follow the straight line where at the planting level, the plants can almost touch each other. Others though plant in a zig zag along the line, this, according to experts creates a thick and better filled hedge, though needs more plants to be achieved.
Hedges that protect wall fences
Wall fences are more secure than hedges, but in some cases like when the wall fence is bounded by a buy neighborhood road, hedges can be used to protect wall fences. This is especially useful when the home is built right next to a busy road. Because of the narrow roads in our neighborhoods, a hedge tends to help in keep passing pedestrians and traffic from getting too close to the fence.
“A bushy hedge behind your fence also makes it one step harder for an intruder to climb over the wall fence. But even more importantly, it makes the fence appear less grey and lifeless, and more familial and pleasant to the eye,” Mpagi says.
When all is said and done, a hedge is less secure than a wall fence. But what it lacks in security, it more than makes up for in the beauty area. The only problem with using nature’s evolved defensive method is that we have to be a little patient for the results. But when these plants have reached maturity they can present the most formidable barriers.
How to maintain that perfect hedge
By Business Daily
There are various ways of beautifying your compound, and one of these is having a healthy-looking, well-maintained hedge. Hedges, or hedgerows, come in various forms, including flowering plants, herbaceous varieties, vines, shrubs and hardy types, trees and even grasses.
Some hedges are best suited for wet regions while others thrive in semi-arid conditions. Some require constant application of fertiliser, while for others, the nutrients in the soil are sufficient.
Different experts note that it is advisable to critically study the plant you want for your hedge to determine the ideal conditions for it.
As a homeowner, don’t be afraid to ask your plant dealer those incisive questions. An honest dealer will provide the correct information about the plants you are buying. You don’t want to sink your money into a plant that either dies or gives you undesirable results.
Besides choosing the right plant, one needs to with the right ways of maintaining one.
Here are some of the ways one can maintain a hedge.
Maintaining your hedge
For a healthy good-looking hedge, the application of manure, bone meal and compost is important.
Just like humans feed regularly, plants too have to be fed.
However, it is not advisable for a gardener to apply di-ammonium phos,phate (DAP) fertilisers on hedges, or applying them during the dry season.
This fertiliser requires a lot of water to be absorbed. If one applies it during the dry spell, you end up scorching the plants.
Pruning
Many people destroy otherwise beautiful hedges while pruning them, thanks to lack of expert information.
It is advised that you should never, for instance, use a machete to prune your hedge. “The machete has a lot of force, which breaks branches and damages the young shoots.
Pruning should be based on the type of hedge, its age and height. One should use specially-designed hedge shears, loppers and secateurs to prune your hedge.
Hedges should be pruned during the wet season as they take shorter to bloom again.
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