The Garden Magazine, October, 1920 
77 
A PLEACHED DRIVEWAY IS ONLY A. MATTER OF A LITTLE MORE TIME 
The material must of course be brought higher before the pleaching begins in order to allow for the passage of vehicles, but otherwise the 
work is identical and always the effect is lovely as this example on the estate of Mr. Anthony J. Drexel. Drexel Hill, Philadelphia, shows 
has a long life, grows rapidly, and its shade is not too dense. 
The dust from the railroad was another of the items considered 
in selecting these trees — the Plane is not affected seriously by it 
because of the coarse character of the leaves. Incidentally, the 
Plane’s chief popularity as a city street tree is due to this same 
quality and the ease with which it establishes itself after trans- 
planting. 
The natural character of the Elm, Ash, and Plane would sug- 
gest a loose and open growth of the matured pleached lane, while 
the Linden, Hornbeam, English Oak, Beech, and Birch would 
seem inevitably to make a dense mat of interwoven twigs and 
leaf masses. It must be remembered, however, that the charac- 
ter of this matting of branches and twigs can be controlled to a 
remarkable extent. For example, we have a double row of 
young healthy trees which some day will be a pleached lane. 
We find a little later on that for some reason one of the trees is 
developing more slowly on one side; this may be for lack of a 
good root system, or shock in transplanting, or possibly from a 
bark bruise on that side of the tree. After stimulating the 
growth by a little extra fertilizing, the twig growth can be in- 
creased by cutting back the branches a little all around but prin- 
cipally on the weak side. In a few months, unless there is some- 
thing radically wrong with the tree, we find that where before 
there was one twig, we now have two or three or more, depending 
on the kind of tree with which we are working. And in a com- 
paratively short time this tree will have caught up to the others 
in growth. 
Under this same principle we can have either a densely shaded 
lane or a rather loose open one, depending on the frequency and 
character of the pruning. The training is done with the young 
wood by actually interlacing the branches and tying them to- 
gether with raffia and then supplementing this by pruning. 
Pruning alone might and usually will result in a densely shaded 
lane; but this is not a pleached lane by any means. The 
beauty of the feature lies in the interwoven boughs as these 
age and build, by growth, the actual woody framework of the 
“ gallery.” 
The outline of the cover or top, however, is entirely in the 
pruner’s hands. It may be flat on the outside with an arch or 
semi-circle underneath, flat both above and beneath, or arched 
above and beneath. It may be quite formal with clearly de- 
fined outlines like a clipped hedge, or open and quite natural. 
The character, after you have selected the most suitable tree, 
should be governed largely by the surroundings and the intended 
use of the space beneath. The rough outline, for instance, 
would not be so good for the public park as the more formal one: 
and a flat top and sides would not seem so suitable through the 
naturalistic part of an estate as an arch, which is a less positive 
form — or better perhaps, a more insinuating one. The charac- 
ter of the clipping in the arch in turn depends on whether that 
part of the property generally is “kept.” or “unkept.” Each 
case obviously needs forethought and a consideration of the 
fitness of things. 
The pruning itself is not a very difficult operation. It means 
that the twigs and buds must be regularly examined; for by ob- 
serving the character of growth in twigs of the same tree, it is 
easily seen by the direction of a bud just where it will be when it 
becomes a twig. If it is going in the direction to make part of 
the top or sides of the covering, it is safe to leave it as it is: if it 
should be going in the wrong direction, it should be clipped off. 
Always remember that a twig will die back to the first bud; 
therefore, it is better to clip it off near the bud than allow the 
dead wood to remain, as this encourages decay. Any heavy 
branches cut off should be made waterproof and insect proof 
with creosote and asphaltum paint. The creosote acts as a 
caustic, closing the wood pores, while the asphaltum is an elastic 
paint which will not crack or dry off unless the cut is very wet. 
It can be mixed together and applied about one part creosote to 
five or six of asphaltum paint. 
A very important factor in establishing the trees is cultivating 
and fertilizing. The ground at the base of each tree should be 
forked at least once a month during the growing season, and more 
frequently in time of drought. This attention, in combination 
with the fertilizer will nourish the young twigs, make them grow 
quickly, and keep them pliable and easy to train. After they 
have become established the treatment will be the same as for 
other trees of the same variety, a lookout being kept for the pests 
and diseases which are likely to attack them. It is then just a 
matter of pruning once or twice a year and watching the develop- 
ment. 
