How to Prepare Your Soil for a New Hedge

Good soil preparation is the cheapest insurance you can buy for a new hedge. Spend an afternoon on it and your plants establish faster and fail less.

Clear the line

Strip out grass, weeds and old roots along the planting strip, ideally 40 to 50cm wide. Competing grass roots steal water and nutrients from young plants, so a clean strip makes a real difference in the first season.

Loosen and improve

Dig over compacted soil to a spade's depth. If your ground is heavy clay, which is common across SEQ, work through gypsum and quality compost to open it up and improve drainage. Sandy coastal soil benefits from compost too, to hold moisture. Aim for a friable, crumbly bed that roots can push into.

Check your drainage

Fill a test hole with water and watch it drain. If it sits for hours, raise the bed slightly or add coarse organic matter, because Lilly Pilly dislikes constantly wet feet as much as it dislikes drought.

Mulch after planting

Once plants are in and watered, lay 75mm of mulch over the root zone, kept a hand's width off the trunks. Mulch holds moisture, suppresses weeds and feeds the soil as it breaks down.

If your job is supplied and installed, our crew handles all of this for you: layout, prep, planting, mulch and clean up. Text a photo of your fence line to 0493 728 423 for a price.