How many hedge plants per metre? Spacing guide for Dover gardens
November is the start of the bare-root planting season, and the question most Dover homeowners ask before ordering plants is not which species to choose but how many to buy. Get the spacing wrong and the hedge either gaps for a decade (too wide apart) or chokes itself within five years and thins out at the base (too tight). Dover's chalk downland, its Dour valley floor, and its coastal clifftop gardens all present slightly different conditions, and the standard "three per metre" rule does not always tell the whole story when you are planting on thin rendzina chalk at Kearsney, on a sheltered town plot in CT16, or on a salt-exposed boundary at the Western Heights.
When can you legally clear ground or cut an existing hedge before planting in Dover?
Planting itself can be carried out at any time of year, subject to ground conditions. However, any vegetation clearance to prepare the planting site, including cutting back or removing an existing hedge or scrub to make way for a new one, falls under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 if it takes place between 1 March and 31 August. Active bird nests must not be disturbed or destroyed. The safe window for clearance work is September to February. If you are planting this autumn and need to clear first, November to February is the correct time for both operations.
Before you start: safe planting on Dover chalk
- Chalk is hard. A mattock or digging bar gets through compacted rendzina far better than a spade alone; a spade on solid chalk bends handles and hurts wrists. Have the right tool before you start.
- Gloves are essential for thorny species: hawthorn, blackthorn, pyracantha and berberis inflict serious puncture wounds. Thick leather or thorn-resistant gauntlet gloves, not garden gloves, for whip planting.
- Keep bare-root plants in their packaging until the moment of planting. Roots exposed to November wind dry out faster than you would expect on chalk; even an hour uncovered can damage fine root hairs and set back establishment. If you cannot plant the day they arrive, heel them into a spare piece of ground or store them in a cool, frost-free shed with the roots wrapped in damp hessian.
- Do not plant into frozen ground. Root-to-soil contact is impossible when the top few centimetres are hard, and establishment will fail. The bare-root window runs to late February or early March; waiting a few days for a thaw costs nothing.
- Work in warm layers in November and December. Trench-digging on a cold chalk hillside is heavy work, and stopping early because of the cold is sensible, not an admission of failure.
How many hedge plants do I need per metre for a Dover garden hedge?
Three plants per metre is the standard answer for most garden hedges in a single row, which places plants roughly 33 cm apart, centre to centre. At that spacing, the fast-growing formal hedges most common in Dover town gardens, privet, hornbeam, beech and cherry laurel, all knit into a solid screen within two to three growing seasons on chalk. To work out how many plants you need: multiply the length of the hedge run in metres by three, then round up to the nearest whole number. A 10-metre boundary needs 30 plants; a 15-metre run needs 45; a 25-metre run needs 75.
A practical note on the ends: the first plant should sit about half a spacing (roughly 15 to 17 cm) in from each end of the run, not right on the end marks. If you place plants at 0 cm and 100 cm, and at 33 cm intervals between them, you end up with slightly wider gaps at the ends than in the middle. Starting half a spacing in from each end keeps the spacing even along the whole row. This matters more on a visible formal hedge than on a rural native hedgerow, but it is worth knowing before you get out the string line.
If you want a solid screen faster, move to four plants per metre (25 cm apart) or five per metre (20 cm apart). The hedge fills in by the end of the second growing season rather than the third. The cost is more plants at the outset and, for some species, a slight risk of overcrowding in the long term if the hedge is trimmed on the narrow side and lateral growth is constrained. For most domestic hedge species in Dover, four per metre is a reasonable compromise between speed and economy if you want a faster result than three per metre delivers.
Should I plant my new hedge in a single row or a double staggered row?
For most Dover town and garden boundaries, a single row is the right starting point. It is easier to plant, easier to weed around in the early years when weed control matters most on chalk, and still produces a solid hedge within two to three seasons at the right species spacing.
A double staggered row makes sense in specific situations. The second row sits 30 to 40 cm behind the first, with each plant positioned opposite the gaps between the plants in the front row. That offset pattern creates a denser basal layer than a single row can, because growth from the rear row fills the lower gaps that the front row stems leave. It uses roughly double the plants and produces a wider hedge (typically 60 to 80 cm at the base before the first formative cut), but the end result is noticeably denser and more stock-proof.
In the context of Dover gardens, a double staggered row is worth the extra cost and ground space in the following situations: a boundary on the chalk downland fringe (Alkham, Lydden, Barham, Temple Ewell, Kearsney) where the hedge must also act as a windbreak against the prevailing south-westerly Channel winds; a rural or semi-rural site where livestock, deer or rabbits are a serious concern; or where the hedge must qualify for a Countryside Stewardship grant (the BN11: Planting New Hedgerows grant requires a staggered double row at six plants per linear metre in total across both rows). For garden hedges under about 1.5 metres tall on a town plot in CT16 or CT17, single row is simpler and perfectly adequate.
When calculating plants for a double staggered row at 30 cm spacing within each row: multiply the run length in metres by six (three plants per metre per row, two rows). A 10-metre double-row hedge at six per metre total needs 60 plants.
Does the species of hedge affect how close together I should plant?
Yes, and quite significantly. The figures below are for single-row planting of garden-sized plants (bare-root whips or small pot-grown stock) in Dover chalk conditions. Larger rootball or instant-hedging plants use wider spacings, covered in the section below.
| Species | Single row spacing | Plants per metre |
|---|---|---|
| Leylandii, Lawson cypress, Thuja plicata | 60–90 cm | 1–2 |
| Cherry laurel, Portuguese laurel, Photinia (Red Robin) | 45–60 cm | 2 |
| Privet (Ligustrum ovalifolium) | 30–40 cm | 3 |
| Beech, hornbeam | 30–45 cm | 2–3 |
| Yew (Taxus baccata) | 30–45 cm | 2–3 |
| Box (Buxus sempervirens) | 25–30 cm | 3–4 |
| Hawthorn, blackthorn, field maple (bare-root whips) | 30 cm | 3 |
| Mixed native (hawthorn-led) double row | 30 cm within each row | 5–6 total |
A few notes specific to Dover conditions:
- Leylandii on chalk: leylandii grows particularly fast on Dover's rendzinas in good summers, adding 600 to 900 mm of extension per season on an unrestrained plant. That lateral spread means wider spacing is fine from the start. An 80 cm gap between plants will close completely within the first two or three seasons. See our guide to staged leylandii reduction if you are planting to an intended height limit and planning for long-term management.
- Box on chalk: box grows slowly, which is part of its appeal for formal clipped shapes, but on thin chalk rendzinas it grows more slowly still. Close spacing (25 to 30 cm) and attention to first-summer watering give box the best chance of forming a solid hedge within four to five years. Note that box blight is now widespread in the Dover district; see our box blight guide and the alternatives guide before committing to box on a large scale.
- Yew on chalk: yew tolerates dry chalk well once established (it is a downland native in many parts of east Kent) but is genuinely slow in the first three years on thin rendzina. Spacing at 30 to 35 cm gives a denser base than the 45 cm option and is worth the extra cost per metre if you are planting a formal yew hedge. Yew is also vulnerable to waterlogging, which is a more pressing concern on Dour valley floor sites than on chalk upland; if your soil is heavy, choose a different species.
- Beech and hornbeam: both form excellent formal hedges on Dover chalk and both are commonly available as bare-root whips in November. At 30 to 40 cm apart, a single row will produce a solid hedge by year three or four. Beech retains its dead copper leaves through winter after cutting, which many Dover homeowners value for the year-round screen it provides even without evergreen foliage. Hornbeam behaves similarly but suits heavier soils slightly better than beech; on very thin chalk, beech is marginally more drought-tolerant.
How does bare-root planting differ from pot-grown or rootball hedging in spacing terms?
The root form of the plant changes the starting size significantly, and starting size directly affects how close together you need to plant to get equivalent early cover.
Bare-root whips (the cheapest option, available November to March) are small, typically 40 to 80 cm tall for a one- or two-year-old plant. They need the closest planting: three to five per metre depending on species. They establish quickly because the root system transplants into the new ground efficiently when dormant, and within two to three seasons they are indistinguishable from a pot-grown hedge started at the same time. The catch is that first-summer watering on Dover chalk is non-negotiable: small root systems on free-draining chalk dry out fast in June and July.
Pot-grown plants are available year-round and arrive larger (commonly 60 to 120 cm tall). They can be planted at two to three per metre because their greater size means they fill the gaps between plants faster. The soil ball from the pot supports the root system through the early weeks, which gives some insurance against the dry spells that trouble bare-root whips on chalk in late spring. The cost per plant is higher, but the quantity needed is lower.
Rootball plants are field-grown and lifted with a soil ball wrapped in hessian or mesh. They arrive larger still, often 100 to 200 cm tall, and are planted at one to two per metre. They give the fastest early height and an established appearance within months of planting. The per-plant cost is significantly higher and the delivery and handling require more work, but for a Dover homeowner who wants a mature-looking hedge boundary quickly, rootball hedging is worth considering.
Instant hedging is the most expensive option: large specimen plants (often 150 cm or more) that are sometimes sold as modular sections pre-grown in a trough. Spacing is one per metre or less, and the visual effect is immediate. This is typically used for high-value properties, formal gardens at Dover's clifftop houses, and situations where the hedge needs to look established from day one rather than in three years.
Whichever root form you choose, the spacing figure is always centre to centre along the row. For our guide to the specific planting technique for bare-root whips on Dover chalk, see the bare-root native hedge planting guide. For pot-grown stock, see the container-grown hedge planting guide. For rootball plants, the rootball planting guide covers soil preparation and watering in detail.
Does Dover's chalk soil affect how I should space new hedge plants?
Chalk affects establishment more than it affects spacing directly, but the two are linked because wider spacing means the individual plants need to work harder in their first few summers to close the gaps, and harder work on thin chalk increases the risk of drought-related failure.
On the shallow chalk rendzinas found across Dover's downland, above the town at Aycliffe and Buckland Hill, along the chalk ridge towards Temple Ewell, and on the open downland above Kearsney and Lydden, the practical adjustment is to plant towards the closer end of the species range (30 cm rather than 45 cm for beech, for example) and to apply a bark mulch strip along the entire length of the planting row immediately after planting. A 5 cm layer of composted bark mulch, kept off the stems themselves, cuts summer moisture loss dramatically and makes the difference between a hedge that survives its first July and one that loses 20 to 30 per cent of plants in a dry year. See the chalk soil mulching guide for specifics on materials and depths.
On the Dour valley floor, around River, Crabble, Kearsney mill and the lower sections of Alkham Valley, soil is deeper and moister than on the chalk upland. Standard spacing guidance applies there without adjustment: the deeper loam holds water better, and first-summer drought is less acute. The same is true for gardens in the older terraced streets of Dover town itself, where cultivated garden soil over decades of organic matter addition is typically more retentive than the raw chalk of newer housing estates or rural plots.
One situation unique to some Dover housing estates (particularly those built from the 1960s to 1990s) is imported clay topsoil over original chalk. This creates a perched water table in the plant root zone: the clay holds water above the free-draining chalk layer below. On these soils, avoid spacing plants so close together that their combined root mass creates a dense, waterlogged layer. At the same time, the surface clay means summer drought is less aggressive than on open chalk, so there is no benefit to especially close spacing for drought resistance. Standard species spacing applies.
For formative pruning timing after planting, remember that the first cut on a bare-root hedge is typically a cut-back by about a third in late February of the year after planting, to encourage basal branching and fill the base of the hedge. This falls within the safe cutting window (September to February). See the hedge establishment aftercare guide for the full year-by-year management programme for newly planted hedges on Dover chalk.
Planning a new hedge in Dover and not sure how many plants to order?
Send us the length of the run, the species you have in mind and your postcode, and we will advise on quantities, spacing, source form and first-year aftercare. Phone 07763 100 477, email hello@doverhedges.co.uk, or use the contact form. We cover CT15, CT16 and CT17.
For the species choices best suited to Dover's chalk soil and coastal conditions, the chalk species selector covers the main options. If you are planting in an exposed coastal position on the clifftop or harbour-front, the guide to salt-tolerant hedges gives the species and spacing recommendations most suited to salt-laden Channel air.