Currant in landscape design: photo, planting and care

Despite the fact that modern landscape designers are increasingly trying to move away from the Soviet-style garden, various berry bushes do not lose their popularity when decorating the plot space. One of them is black currant. In the light of new trends in garden design, a blackcurrant hedge will be an interesting solution.

Currant bushes in landscape design

Landscape designers love to use berry bushes in landscaping, as they are very good for accenting or zoning space. In addition, due to the different heights of individual species, you can assemble a separate composition that will represent a “delicious” corner of the garden. Currant is mainly used in three cases:

1. As the center of a flower arrangement, around which a flower bed is planted. Here, the currant acts as an accent that gives the design more organization.
2. As a separator between plantings. Through this use, other plants will remain within their boundaries. This technique comes into play when blackcurrants are planted at the base of alpine slides.
3. Like a zoning fence. Blackcurrant shrubs can be any height up to three meters, so with proper care they make excellent hedges. Thanks to them, you can divide the space, hide the fence or metal crossbars.

Features of a currant hedge

Most often, currants are still used to create a hedge around part of the site, replacing or supplementing the fence with it. The shrub is great for this purpose for several reasons:

• The plant calmly takes root in the climate, and after it has finally taken root, it is not afraid of drought or excessive moisture;
• Currant bushes grow widely, due to which they create a dense green wall if they are planted next to each other;
• The shrub does not have thorns, but there are beautiful wide leaves that turn yellow with the onset of autumn;
• The plant blooms with eye-pleasing small flowers resembling bells in shape;
• There are several types of blackcurrant, and they all differ in height, so it will be easy enough to choose the one that is needed in a particular situation.

Despite the fact that the currant is relatively unpretentious, when planting it needs to create comfortable conditions for the plant to take root. For this purpose, it is necessary to cultivate the soil in which it is planned to plant a shrub. To do this, add a pound of tree bark and 200 g of humus to the recess under the currant, so that it is easier for the shrub to take root. In addition, in the first three to four years, the bushes must be fertilized and watered in the summer so that they begin to bear fruit.

Varieties of currants for hedges

In total, there are 14 varieties of currants, but most of them are not suitable for landscape design. Only two types of crops are in special demand: black and golden currants. They are both very beautiful and perfectly suited for a fence, but still have a few important differences.

Blackcurrant bushes can be of any height, therefore they are suitable for both external and internal zoning of the site. More often they are still used in the second case, since they make a rarer green hedge. The plant bears black, brown, or dark purple berries in late summer, and flowers in small white bells. The berries can be used to make jams, jams, sauces, or eaten raw. In autumn, you should not expect a lot of colorful leaves from blackcurrant – the shrub remains green for a long time, then somewhere closer to October it quickly turns yellow and loses foliage. Culture in height usually reaches no more than 1,5 meters.

Photo of a blackcurrant hedge:

Golden currant has a more decorative purpose than black currant. Berries also grow on it, but in taste they are much inferior to the previous variety described. But it blooms with bright yellow flowers that cover the entire bush, and in autumn, golden currants can please with multi-colored colorful leaves.

In addition, its bushes grow up to three meters in height, making it suitable for hedges along the fence.

How to plant a currant hedge?

Planting black and golden currants should not cause any problems: the process is quite simple and does not require much physical or time costs. In total it consists of 5 stages:

1. Mark the area where the bushes will be planted. To create a hedge, the plants should be placed in a straight line at a distance of half a meter to a meter from each other.
2. Next, you need to dig up the soil and dig holes for seedlings, which should be half a meter wide and deep.
3. Then, fertilizers, tree bark and a little humus must be added to each recess to make it easier for the plants to take root.
4. Now you can plant the seedling. Depending on the variety, it is important to dig in from a third to a half of the seedling, so it will be easier for it to take root. Before planting, pour half a bucket of water into the recess.
5. After the plants are planted, once again it is important to water them and sprinkle them with black soil.

How to care for a currant hedge

A blackcurrant hedge does not require much maintenance, but it is very important to cut it in time so that it retains its shape. Such processing should begin when the shrubs reach 40 – 60 cm in height. If you miss this moment and do not have time to give them a shape when they are still small, then it will be quite difficult to cope with grown plants in a hedge. Blackcurrant grows quickly, so its branches will climb in all directions and spoil the original plan. If you give it a shape early, then these problems can be avoided, since in this case you will not have to completely redo the silhouette of the shrub, but only cut off the extra branches.

In addition, the first two or three years it is very important to fertilize the plants and water them during the fruiting period so that they grow faster and form a hedge.

Landscape tricks with currants in the garden

As mentioned earlier, black and golden currants can be added to the landscape as an accent or as a border to other vegetation, but these crops can also act as a separate decorative element. There are several ways to do this:

• You can make a composition of bushes of different heights to get a kind of level gardening. This technique can be used on hilly or uneven terrain to visually level the area. In addition, such a composition can be planted along an alpine hill to create a parallel to it, but then the shrubs will act not as a separate element of the garden, but as an accent;

  

• You can create a small berry garden separate from the main one, which could act as a zone of peace and quiet. The blackcurrant bushes provide excellent shade, and they do not attract many insects, so nothing can interfere with a quiet pastime in this corner;

  

• You can plant currants along the paths, and then during the period of flowering and fruiting, it will decorate the garden no worse than individual flower pots.

A blackcurrant hedge option along the paths in the photo:

Conclusion

A blackcurrant hedge is a great opportunity to create a unique landscape. This species, along with the golden currant, despite the fact that it is not strictly an ornamental plant, can perform several landscape functions, including space zoning. In addition, she adds “taste” to the garden, because her berries are the same symbol of summer as strawberries or watermelons. In any case, the presence of a crop on the site will definitely decorate the landscape, and the ease of caring for it will significantly save time and effort for gardeners.