How My English Boxes Doubled In Size In 6 Months

English box (Buxus Sempervirens) is an evergreen bushy shrub which is grown in numbers to create a bordering hedge used to separate sections of garden. It can also be grown in pots and individually in your garden.

The plant is lush and dense with leaves making it a perfect candidate for topiary hedge cutting. Depending on their size they can be shaped into round, square or rectangular hedge plants.

English Boxes are the main staple for garden mazes. When they grow they stay dense and are easy to hedge. They are also great for privacy screens if you can wait for the plant to grow that big.

 

It is a slow-growing shrub which can eventually grow 2 metres high and 2 metres wide. You can expect a 150mm (6 inch) high plant to double in six months if it is in perfect growing conditions.The English box shoot upwards when they are younger and fill out after some age.

 

 (Above: The Before Picture)

When you are growing your English Box,

• You can place the plant in full sun, part sun and part shade. The English box will grow in all sun conditions as long as it is kept wet.
• Test the soil so it remains slightly alkaline (7-8) on the Ph scale. Boxes prefer alkaline so if your soil is less than 7 use some agricultural limestone to bring it up a little.
• Likes a moist well-drained soil, and prefers no grass or weeds around the roots. It is usually planted composed and along the side of paths. English boxes look best when they are on their own on mulch or crushed rock and well hedged. Moist soil ensures that they have enough water to keep the cool in the heat.
• English box love chicken manure. Chicken manure is high in nitrogen which the boxes love.
• Plant English box to about 4-5 plants per metre. If they get planted too far apart it can take years for them to connect and create a hedge.
• English box do not suffer from trunk rot, so you can plant them in deep.

 

(Above: 6 months after planting)

After they are in, to keep them at their best.

• Can wither in hot weather, and is subject to harsh frost conditions. Mulching helps keep your root temperature stable which will help during harsh weather.
• Keep the soil moist, a drip line run along your hedge is a great idea to keep the water up.
• Keep fertilizing with seaweed based liquid fertilizer and slow release fertilizer that is strong in nitrogen.
• Keep the grass and weeds away from the trunks. The trunks can get strangled and boxes don’t do well with competition.

 

My boxes have doubled in size in six months which I am happy about. One has died, and a few others are weltering which I am keeping an eye on but other than that the boxes are going to make a great front fence and cover a plastic pipe from view in my front yard.