Planting Hornbeam Hedge - Recommendations

Hello!

I want to plant my hornbeam hedge in the next few days. It should be an approximately 30 m long hedge made of bare-root plants measuring 100-125 cm.
To prevent weeds, I am thinking of installing a weed control fabric on which I will later place bark mulch.

The nursery from which I am getting the plants recommends forming a trench along the hornbeams that can be easily filled with water to provide sufficient irrigation.

How would you proceed?
1. How can I - practically speaking - use the fabric together with a watering trench?
2. When should the bark mulch be applied on top?

Thanks and regards!

Unfortunately, I have no answer to that, but it is very important to maintain enough distance from the neighbor / property boundary because they can grow quite a lot. We always have ours regularly trimmed so that they do not disturb the neighbor.

I planted my blood beech hedge without fleece. I am not a fan of it. Not much weed grows anyway under a beech hedge, so why use plastic. When planting, I mixed some forest humus with our clay soil and added organic fertilizer. I also spread the bark mulch directly on top. This way you immediately get some "life" into the soil. Later, I ordered a kilo of earthworms from Amazon, which are reproducing splendidly.

Yesterday she arrived. Hornbeam hedge. Preparatory work. Dug a trench along the boundary. 50 deep, spade width. The gardeners then planted three plants per meter, trench full, done. More is necessary. Soil type clayey arable soil. Former cereal field. Karsten

How would you proceed?

Leave out weed control fleece and bark mulch. We also recently planted a few meters of [Rotbuche]. Removed weeds, loosened the soil (tiller), stretched a string, dug a trench, sprinkled horn shavings, 3 plants per meter, filled the trench, pressed the plants slightly, watered, smoothed the remaining soil. If you do want to apply bark mulch, it is very important to apply a nitrogen source (e.g. horn shavings). When the mulch layer decomposes, it initially withdraws nitrogen from the soil. Your plants would then accordingly wither or not grow. I still disposed of some leaves, which accumulated elsewhere, at the hedge.