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Planting and maintaining shrubs

Female blackbird feeding on berries

Planting

Plant your shrubs around 0.5–1.2 m apart (18 ins-4 ft). To force growth rates, plant densely, but you will eventually need to thin this out and allow the stronger plants to grow on to maturity.
Trim off broken or damaged branches. If you are planting whips, trim damaged roots.
Dig a hole deeper and wider than the root ball. Backfill the hole, gently firming the soil as you go. Ensure there are no air pockets around the roots. Incorporate plenty of well-rotted compost.
Avoid backfilling above the ‘nursery line’. This is an obvious mark at the base of the plants stem, indicating the level at which the plant was originally grown.
With pot grown shrubs, check the roots are not tightly wound round inside the pot. This indicates the plant is pot bound and has been lying around the nursery for a long time.
Cover the soil afterwards with a mulch such as grass clippings, bark chippings or even old carpet and black plastic bags to keep weeds at bay.

Maintenance

During the first year or two, weed around the plants to help them establish quicker. Weeding can be reduced by mulching or underplanting with flowering plants to supress unwanted plants and retain soil moisture.
Where weeding is necessary, carry it out sparingly to reduce soil disturbance and minimise moisture loss. Constant cultivation perpetuates the opportunity for seeds to grow. However, it is worth considering the benefits to birds and compromise with a balanced and pragmatic approach.
Many wild annual plants are of great benefit to birds for their seeds and some of the insects they attract, which birds also eat. Weeding infrequently and lightly ensures some food for the birds.
After a few years (usually five to ten, but sooner for some species), shrubs start to require cutting back. Most native and deciduous shrubs, tolerate and benefit from cutting (or coppicing) to just above ground level. Some ornamentals and evergreens, particularly conifers, will die if treated this way. Check any good garden book first if unsure.
Without pruning, most shrubs revert to trees or become ‘leggy’, losing their dense structure and their wildlife value. Cut and prune established shrubs over a period of a few years to create a range of ages and structures from bare ground, through young and old growth to decaying wood.
Cuttings should be left lying in the border. If you have to move them, place them in a discrete place as near to where they came from as possible.
Where shrubs have been cut back to the ground, there is likelym to be a flush of annual plants in the first year. This is nothing to be concerned about as a mature, established shrub will soon re-grow and shade the plants out. In the meantime, those plants will provide seed and insect food for birds, and nectar for insects.
Decaying wood is an important part of any wildlife garden as it has great value as shelter and food for wildlife. Wherever possible, retain dead stems on plants and leave standing or fallen dead shrubs. Click on the link to the right for more information.
Shrubs broadly fall into two categories: those that flower on the previous year’s growth (e.g. forsythia) and those that flower later in the year on the current year’s growth (e.g. philadelphus). Some groups of shrub, such as the spireas have varieties that flower on either old or new growth. Check any good gardening book, or when you purchase the plant, for details of when to prune.
For maximum benefit to wildlife, carry out management in late winter. This is particularly true for native species, such as hawthorn, hazel and dogwood. The best time for pruning and coppicing is during January and early February after birds have eaten the berries and before they start to nest.
Do not trim or cut your shrubs between late February and the end of August, as this is the main breeding season for birds in the UK. Check for signs of nesting activity prior to cutting at any time of the year as some species can nest all year round.
Where plants have been densely planted, they eventually require thinning. After thinning, allow some plants to re-grow from the stumps to create a thick lower shrub layer and understory. You can cut these down every few years in rotation. Those that you do not want to re-grow need to have new growth cut off from the stump. Eventually they will give up and die, leaving just the stump to rot.