The Importance of Hedegrows

If you need a boundary, or some shelter please plant a hedge and this is why:

They are a home for wildife providing shelter and food.
The are a transport corridoor for animals trying to get from one habitat to another, even for bats and brirds who follow them so they know where they are going.
Native hedges are the most widespread semi-natural habitat in the UK, they support a large diversity of flora and fauna.
They act as a carbon sink.
They clean the air next to your home.

Choose a hedge work for your garden. It doesn not need to be native. A hedge of roses, laurel or a beech hedge. It’s up to you. Just go green.

One hedge row is now a combination of trees and large shrubs. The shrubs, if left, will grow old and die.
Some where taken to about 10cm above the ground. They should regrow from the base.
In places we laid over the smaller stems. They will help create a barrier and also produce new shoots.
Finally we gap filled with native whips (twigs with roots really!) to get that hedge going again.
Now the laid stems are greening up and the whips are growing.

This is my brand new skill!
I have a lot to lay, only managed 25m this winter but it was a learning curve. I had help from Neil and Fred, professionals and also friends.
We did not use stakes and binders and we did employ a fairly natural style retaining many of the twiggy branches. Whist the skill level required to do this is much less it still achieves the same outcome: a strong stock proof hedge, really thick which can be managed as it grows outwards each year.
Now they are greening up and the hawthorn is just about to pop!