By Sid
Hereford,
United Kingdom 
Last late autumn / early winter, I planted a bareroot hornbeam hedge. We are a corner plot, so the hedge goes around two roads - about 40 metres. We planted a staggered row along the existing fence with the intention of removing the fence when the hedge had grown a bit. The hedge all came into leaf and looked fine to start with, then bit by bit the leaves of several of the plants have gone brown. Most of the damaged plants occur on the road side of the staggered row and all of them are along the main road, which is salted in winter (the other is not). My suspicion is that it's the salt that has caused the damage, being thrown up as spray by passing cars. Does anyone have any other theories? And if GoYers agree it is salt damage, are there any suggestions, please, as to how I can save my hedge? Is it even worth saving - should I plant a different species? Thanks all!
6 Jun, 2015
Answers
You could try sea-buckthorn:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippophae
6 Jun, 2015
If the ones on the garden side of the stagger are unaffected you could wait for them to grow - they will thicken up and fill the space in time - but the problem might recur then.
If you have the resources a low solid fence or wall would keep the splashes off and son be hidden by the hedge from your side.
6 Jun, 2015
I wonder if is isn't something like weedkiller that the council might have sprayed. When the roads were salted there wouldn't have been leaf on the Carpinus. I would stick with what you have planted and I think that the mature plants will withstand anything that might be sprayed or splashed. If you are still concerned that it might be salt in winter then why not staple some polythene sheeting to the inside of the fence on a temporary basis.
7 Jun, 2015
Thanks for the helpful advice guys - I had been thinking I might put some sort of shield up to stop the spray - the polythene idea sounds a good one as it would let the light through. People further up the road have beech and privet hedges that seem unaffected, so hopefully you are right in that as the plants mature they might be more resilient.
Thanks all.
S.
8 Jun, 2015
Bulba and I live in a village with no pavements. When we first moved into our house we planted a Cotoneaster hedge along the front inside a wooden fence with a view to removing the fence... it died from the salt run off from the road. We tried again, same result and gave up on that idea and built a double dyke with the outer wall cemented and the inner wall dry stone and planted up. Have not had a problem since. If your on a main road that is regularly salted in winter I doubt you'll find any hedging plant will survive.
6 Jun, 2015