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Feeding and mulching a hedge in East Kent: chalk, Thanet Sand and the dry belt.

A hedge planted in November on chalk near Adisham and one planted on Thanet Sand out toward Ash need different feeding and a different depth of mulch to get through an East Kent summer. This is the guide that explains why, and what to do about it.

Most hedges in CT3 gardens are planted and then left to fend for themselves. That works well enough in an average year. In a dry July of the kind East Kent sees regularly, with monthly rainfall running below 30mm across the A257 corridor, it doesn’t. Both chalk and Thanet Sand are free-draining soils; both lose surface moisture fast when the weather turns dry. The difference between a hedge that puts on 30cm of growth in a season and one that sulks at 10cm is often just a bag of fertiliser and a barrow of compost in the right place at the right time.

This guide covers feeding and mulching for established hedges. For the planting itself and the watering regime in the first season, see the bare-root native hedge guide.

When to feed: spring, not summer

The feeding window for CT3 hedges is early spring: March to mid-April, when the soil is still holding moisture from winter and growth is beginning. Applying fertiliser to dry soil in a July drought is mostly wasted. The granules sit on the surface with no water to carry them to the roots, and if rain then comes suddenly, they can wash away or spike the soil unevenly.

On Thanet Sand toward Ash and Staple, where hedges grow faster and nutrient availability is lower than on chalk, a second application in late May to early June can make a visible difference to late-season density. The faster growth on sandy ground depletes nutrients more quickly, and the second feed bridges the gap between the spring flush and the August cutting season.

Do not feed after July. New soft growth stimulated in August and September cannot harden off before the first East Kent frosts, typically arriving in October on the higher chalk ground above Adisham or in the frost pockets of the Nailbourne valley near Bekesbourne. Soft frost-damaged tips become an entry point for fungal disease in formal hedge species and die back to a lower bud, losing a season’s growth.

What to feed with: the chalk and sand split

Chalk soils: Adisham, Bekesbourne, higher Wingham ground

Shallow chalk is alkaline (pH 7.5 to 8 is typical on the higher chalk-side ground west of Wingham toward Adisham), low in organic matter, and drains quickly after rain. A balanced granular fertiliser, blood fish and bone, or a dedicated hedge feed at the manufacturer’s recommended rate is the right starting point. Blood fish and bone releases nutrients over two to three months, which suits the slow drainage and modest growth rates on chalk. Avoid feeds that are high in nitrogen only: they push lush soft growth that looks good in June but tends to suffer in August drought when chalk soils dry fastest.

Apply to moist soil in March or early April. If the soil is bone dry from a warm February, water the base of the hedge first and feed after it has drained for a day. On shallow chalk, the roots of an established hedge may only descend 30 to 40cm before hitting solid rock; nutrients wash through this shallow zone faster than on deeper soils, which makes a repeat spring application sensible every year rather than every other year.

Thanet Sand: Ash, Staple and the eastward ground

As the A257 runs east from Wingham toward Ash, the soil shifts from chalk to Thanet Sand: a free-draining, slightly acidic sandy deposit with a lower native fertility than chalk. The pH is typically 6 to 6.5, which makes phosphate and some trace elements more available than on chalk, but the lighter texture means nutrients leach through quickly after rain.

Hedges on Thanet Sand near Ash and Staple grow noticeably faster in a decent spring than their chalk-side equivalents, which is partly why a second application in late May to early June is worth doing here. The visual response is also faster: blood fish and bone put down in March on the sandy ground near Ash will often show as a clear growth surge within three to four weeks, where the equivalent treatment on chalk takes five to six weeks to register.

The same principle applies here: no feeding after July. The faster growth rate on Thanet Sand makes late-season soft growth an even bigger frost-vulnerability risk than it is on chalk.

Little Stour valley: Wickhambreaux, Ickham, Preston

The villages along the Little Stour sit on heavier alluvial soils with a higher clay fraction than either the chalk upland to the south or the sandy ground to the east. These soils hold moisture and nutrients better. A single spring feed at the standard rate is usually adequate here, and if anything the risk is overfeeding rather than underfeeding: a nitrogen-rich feed on already-fertile, moisture-retentive soil near Wickhambreaux or Ickham can push rank growth that needs an extra cut.

Mulching: the non-optional part for East Kent gardens

Feeding provides nutrients. Mulching provides moisture retention, which is the bigger constraint for most CT3 hedges in a dry summer. A 7 to 8cm layer of well-rotted organic material across the root zone of a hedge will measurably reduce moisture loss from the soil surface compared to bare ground. On chalk near Adisham where surface moisture disappears within days of a summer rain event, that moisture retention is the difference between a hedge that keeps growing and one that goes into heat stress by the second week of July.

What to use

• Well-rotted garden compost: the best all-round choice. Feeds the soil organisms as it breaks down further, improves structure on both chalk and sand, and holds moisture well. Aim for material that has been composting for at least a year.
• Composted wood chip (broadleaf): an excellent moisture retainer. Must be well-rotted: fresh chip causes nitrogen lock-up as it decomposes, drawing nitrogen from the soil and starving the hedge roots. If a tree surgeon offers you fresh chip, leave it in a heap for six to twelve months before using it around hedge plants.
• Bark chip: slower to break down than compost, stays in place well, gives a tidy appearance in a formal garden. Breaks down into organic matter over two to three years.
• Well-rotted farmyard manure: excellent structure-improver on both chalk and sand. Does not apply well on chalk in large quantities without composting first (high phosphate levels from fresh manure can lock up on alkaline chalk soils). Well-rotted and composted material avoids this.

What to avoid

• Fresh wood chip: nitrogen lock-up. See above. This is the most common mulching mistake on CT3 sites where contractors offer chip from recent tree work.
• Peat: no benefit over compost on chalk or sand, and environmentally costly to extract. Not worth using.
• Inorganic mulches (gravel, slate, stone): these suppress weeds but add no organic matter and do nothing for moisture retention in the soil itself (they just reduce surface evaporation, which helps somewhat). On chalk soils that are already short of organic matter, inorganic mulches delay the organic matter build-up that chalk hedges need. Use them on paths and beds, not as the primary hedge mulch.

Depth and technique

Apply mulch to a depth of 7 to 8cm on chalk and Thanet Sand. On the heavier soils of the Little Stour valley, 5cm is adequate. Thinner than 5cm on chalk or sand is too thin to hold moisture through a dry July; thicker than 10cm risks excluding oxygen from the surface roots and creating waterlogged conditions in a wet winter.

Keep mulch at least 10cm away from the stem bases of hedge plants. Mulch packed against stems creates a damp collar that promotes fungal disease and rot. Apply it in a band of 30 to 40cm either side of the hedge stem line, leaving a clear gap around each stem.

Apply mulch to moist soil, not to dry soil. Mulching onto dry chalk or sandy ground in a drought seals the surface and slows any rain from penetrating to the roots. If the garden is already dry in spring, water the hedge base first and apply mulch after the soil has taken the water in.

When to mulch

The two best mulching windows in CT3 are November and March.

November is the peak bare-root planting month across the Wingham patch. Mulching immediately after planting locks in the soil warmth from the autumn, reduces frost heave around new roots, and puts organic matter in place before the dry belt kicks in. The bare-root planting guide covers this in the context of new plants.

March is the right timing for established hedges: mulch applied as growth begins in early spring feeds the soil organisms, retains the winter moisture that the chalk and sandy soils still hold, and reduces the need for watering through June and July. It also suppresses weeds along the hedge base before they get going.

Avoid mulching in mid-summer onto dry soil, and avoid mulching in waterlogged conditions in winter. A frozen soil in January is fine to mulch: the mulch insulates, and the nutrients will be available when the frost breaks.

How to tell if a hedge needs feeding rather than something else

Yellowing leaves in midsummer are often taken as a sign that a hedge needs feeding. Before reaching for the fertiliser bag, check two other causes first. On chalk soils, summer yellowing is frequently lime-induced chlorosis: iron deficiency driven by the high alkaline pH making iron unavailable to the roots. The fix is chelated iron rather than a general NPK feed. A soil pH test (cheap from any garden centre) will confirm whether this is the likely cause.

On Thanet Sand toward Ash and Staple, yellowing on privet and hornbeam in July is often simply drought stress rather than nutrient deficiency. A deep watering will often reverse the yellowing within a fortnight. Feeding a drought-stressed hedge without addressing the moisture problem first tends to push growth that immediately wilts in the next dry spell.

Sources: RHS, "Choosing and using garden mulches" (RHS YouTube, December 2024); RHS guidance on feeding hedges and shrubs; BGS British Geological Survey 1:50,000 solid and drift geology, Sheet 274 (Canterbury); Cranfield University Soilscapes viewer (chalk and Thanet Sand classifications, CT3 area); Met Office regional climate data, South East England.