Adding Hornbeams and Hedge Maples to My Living Maze
My living maze is getting more "a-mazing" with each row of plantings.
My three-acre living maze is located in a pasture just outside my Winter House. I started planting it a little over a year ago with a variety of different hedges, espaliers, trees, and shrubs. All of the specimens will grow tall enough to prevent walkers from seeing the paths ahead. We've been planting a section per week while the ground is still soft. Most recently, we planted a row of hedge maples, Acer campestre, and a row of American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana. Both are deciduous tree types and turn beautiful colors in fall.
Enjoy these photos.
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- This view looks down the pasture to the London planetrees, which is the center focal point of the maze. We still have a long way to go, but we’re making progress every week and all the plantings are doing excellently.
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- Planting any row of specimens always starts with a carefully measured line. The maze is drawn out on a map, so the area is marked according to the map’s specifications.
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- The next step is to remove the sod from the designated area. This is done with our Classen Pro HSC18 sod cutter. This sod cutter is so easy to maneuver and so sharp, Chhiring finishes one row in just minutes.
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- It cuts the sod in two strips, which are then cut and rolled into sections, so they can be removed. Sod is quite heavy. The sod will be used in another section of the farm, so nothing is wasted.
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- This is what the cleared area looks like once all the sod is pulled up.
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- Then, all the potted trees are placed right where they should be planted. Everyone works in an efficient production line process. All the trees are positioned first before any planting begins. This is a row of hedge maples.
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- The leaves of a hedge maple are two to four inches wide, with opposite arrangement and three to five lobes each. Here, one can see the green foliage and the bright yellow color that follows in autumn.
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- And here is a row of American hornbeam. Songbirds are attracted to its forked branches, dense crown and tasty seeds. These will mature nicely in the maze.
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- The American hornbeam has leaves that are oval with pointed tips and finely toothed edges. They become golden yellow to orange in autumn.
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- Each tree hole is dug with enough room for the plant’s root ball. The rule of thumb when planting trees is to dig the hole two times as wide as the rootball and no deeper than the bottom of the rootball to the trunk flare. The flare of the tree should be at or slightly above the soil grade. More simply, the tree should be planted similar to how it is in its pot.
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- Byron places the potted tree in the hole to make sure it is the right size. When planting, always check that the plant is positioned with the best side facing out, or in this case, facing the path.
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- Here is the hole – perfectly sized for this tree.
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- Then, a good handful of fertilizer is dropped into the hole. We use all-natural fertilizers enhanced with beneficial bacteria that works naturally within the soil to help plants establish fast, withstand environmental stress, promote deeper roots, better blooms, and improve soil structure.
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- Before planting, Byron removes the tree from its pot and scarifies the rootball. Scarifying stimulates root growth. Essentially, he teases small portions of the root ball to loosen the roots a bit and create some beneficial injuries. This helps the plant become established more quickly in its new environment.
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- Then Byron places it into the hole and backfills with soil. It’s that easy to plant a tree!
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- Once it is planted, the surrounding soil is tamped down to ensure good contact between the plant and the soil.
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- After a group is in the ground, Byron looks down the line to make sure they are all planted straight up and down and in line with each other.
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- Hedge maples will grow to be about 35 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of about 30 feet. It has a low canopy with a typical clearance of four feet from the ground. These trees are expected to live for 80 years or more.
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- The American hornbeam is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree that grows slowly, about a foot per year, reaching an average height and spread of 20 to 30 feet over a life span of 50 to 150 years. The last step is a good, deep drink. Remember, if you drink and eat, so should your plants and trees.
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- Recently, we also planted this row of holly. Many varieties of holly, Ilex, have compact habits and glistening, bright green foliage, that’s excellent for hedges, borders, and yes, mazes.
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- In August, we planted this row of yews. Yews are known for being slow-growing, but in the right conditions, yew hedge trees can grow about 30-centimeters per year. These yews are spaced closely, so they become a closed hedge in time.
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- We also planted these privets. Ligustrum ovalifolium, also known as Korean privet, California privet, garden privet, and oval-leaved privet, is a species of flowering plant in the olive family native to Japan and Korea. It is a dense, fast-growing, deciduous evergreen shrub or small tree.
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- And this is a Liquidambar styraciflua ‘Slender Silhouette’, American sweetgum. As this tree mature, it will maintain its erect, columnar form, growing up to 50 feet tall and only about four-feet wide.
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- My overall plan is to plant as many interesting trees, hedges, espaliers, and shrubs as possible in this space and to create a fun and challenging living maze. Follow along and see it develop with me!
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