When to trim newly laid hedge?

[Pidgeonpost]

My wife and I laid about 25 yards of our neglected hedge in January - a mix of hawthorn, bit of hazel, something that could be wytch elm too. 

It's grown pretty well but I'm wondering when to give it a light trim. There's nothing on it in the way of fruit or berries that I could leave for wildlife so I'm wondering whether to do it nowish or late winter. I'd be grateful for your advice please. ?

[Guest Gimlet]

Leave it till the sap has gone down and the leaves have dropped. Trim in mid winter if you really need to. 

 

Laid hedges don't need as much trimming as unlaid hedges because the stems aren't trying to grow into trees. If you can, learn to love the tousled natural look and resist the temptation to square everything up all the time. It's a mindset we've acquired since mechanisation and it does hedges no good at all. The main thing is too avoid mechanical flailing if you possibly can and if you want to keep the height under control, don't cut every year (or even every other year) and when you do trim don't keep cutting it back to the same point all the time. Your cut won't grow out. New stems will grow from around the cut and if you keep going back to that point a multiple-stemmed calloused knuckle will develop and the plant wastes energy healing that instead of generating new growth, especially at the base. There's much less trauma and healing required if trimming is done with a clean blade cut rather than a flail. And if you vary the height - one year cutting back above your first trim point and the next time going below it - a woody knuckle with too many stems won't develop and you won't get a top-heavy hedge with a reduced base growth.

 

Mixed hedges with hazel in them can be tricky because the hazel will grow much faster than most other species. Generally a hazel hedge wants re-laying every seven to ten years. You can top trim if you want to keep the height under control but keep an eye on the new leaders that are growing from the heal where you made your original cut when you laid the stem. Whatever the species, when those leaders become bigger and more vigorous than your original pleacher the plant will transfer its energy to those and the pleacher will start to look old and tired and may even die. When that happens it means it's time to lay the hedge again, so at that stage it's important to cease top trimming for a couple of years and let the younger leaders, which will become your new pleachers, grow out so you've got a good eight feet in height in your stems with undamaged new growth at the top of them to work with.   

 

Edited September 19, 2019 by Gimlet

[Pidgeonpost]

Thanks @Gimlet that's very helpful. There's no chance of flail cutting on this hedge. The hedgeline is only about 6' from a large window and flailing under previous ownership resulted in a broken pane (which was left for us to replace). At only 25 yards it will be hand tools.

Controlling height is a slight concern because a trimmed height of 6'-8' on one side will result in a height of 10'-12' from the lane on the other side, but hey ho! 

At age 70 and 71 we were apprehensive about tackling the job but I'd done a weekend course back in the 80's, though done no laying since. We knew the hedge must be very old as there was a thatched cottage here before the existing house. We knew also that the hedge hadn't been laid for at least 30-40 years.

There was a HUGE amount of dead stuff and we feared that by the time we'd got rid of the rubbish we'd only have brambles left! Even in its scabby neglected state the hedge was always full of birds, an occasional weasel, a rat or two, and countless insects. I'm looking forward to seeing them return as the hedge thickens up. Photo shows our amateurish efforts but we didn't have much to work with and as they say around here "a blind mon 'ud glad ta zee it'. ?

[Stubby]

9 hours ago, Gimlet said:

Leave it till the sap has gone down and the leaves have dropped. Trim in mid winter if you really need to. 

 

Laid hedges don't need as much trimming as unlaid hedges because the stems aren't trying to grow into trees. If you can, learn to love the tousled natural look and resist the temptation to square everything up all the time. It's a mindset we've acquired since mechanisation and it does hedges no good at all. The main thing is too avoid mechanical flailing if you possibly can and if you want to keep the height under control, don't cut every year (or even every other year) and when you do trim don't keep cutting it back to the same point all the time. Your cut won't grow out. New stems will grow from around the cut and if you keep going back to that point a multiple-stemmed calloused knuckle will develop and the plant wastes energy healing that instead of generating new growth, especially at the base. There's much less trauma and healing required if trimming is done with a clean blade cut rather than a flail. And if you vary the height - one year cutting back above your first trim point and the next time going below it - a woody knuckle with too many stems won't develop and you won't get a top-heavy hedge with a reduced base growth.

 

Mixed hedges with hazel in them can be tricky because the hazel will grow much faster than most other species. Generally a hazel hedge wants re-laying every seven to ten years. You can top trim if you want to keep the height under control but keep an eye on the new leaders that are growing from the heal where you made your original cut when you laid the stem. Whatever the species, when those leaders become bigger and more vigorous than your original pleacher the plant will transfer its energy to those and the pleacher will start to look old and tired and may even die. When that happens it means it's time to lay the hedge again, so at that stage it's important to cease top trimming for a couple of years and let the younger leaders, which will become your new pleachers, grow out so you've got a good eight feet in height in your stems with undamaged new growth at the top of them to work with.   

 

Very informative .  I don't lay hedges but found this interesting . ?

[nepia]

Likewise; Gimlet knows his stuff and puts his experience across well.

 

 

Great effort Pidgeonpost.

[Stere]

Have a read of this

 

https://www.longforest.cymru/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=af61fd10-150f-4b68-97a7-581eccded8e4

 

Covers some of the info gimlet posted with some pictures.

 

Once you read it you can go around rating hegdes on the 1-9 hegderow  management scale ?

 

Useful concept I reckon.

Edited September 20, 2019 by Stere

[Pidgeonpost]

Thanks - that promises to be an interesting read. I'm hoping to get the opportunity to help a friend lay his hedge this winter - if he gets round to it. 

[Guest Gimlet]

Good work @Pigeonpost. You've done well with a very tricky hedge there. I doubt that will need much trimming for two or three years at least. Some of those stems are old and on the way out. When they're old,  dark and brittle at the centre they can be very difficult to lay. Sometimes old stuff like that is easier to cut early in the season while they're still a bit sappy. But your cuts and tongues (hinges) look good and you've probably saved the hedge's life. Even if some of the very old pleachers die, by laying them you've effectively coppiced the root stock so they should still produce new leaders and by cleaning the hedge out the way you have you've given them the best chance. Good on you. Without your work that hedge probably wouldn't have been there much longer. 

 

Don't worry about your age. 70 is spring chicken by some hedge layer's standards. I know people still doing it commercially in their 80s. It's the hedging that keeps them fir. Keep up the good work.  

 

 

Edited September 20, 2019 by Gimlet

[roboted]

Excellent topic. Very informative. I shall look at the laid hedges around here (Heathfield/Mayfield/Witherenden) in a different light.

[Pidgeonpost]

5 hours ago, Gimlet said:

Good work @Pigeonpost. You've done well with a very tricky hedge there. I doubt that will need much trimming for two or three years at least. 

 

 

Well thanks for that @Gimlet-that's encouraging!  The hedge really was in a bad way. There was no base to it and it looked like a row of stems with lollipop tops.

The first part we laid was also the most difficult to deal with due to the size and direction of growth of some of the stems. Luckily they laid OK though I did have some stems elsewhere that I thought were live and just snapped off when tackled. Also some stems were hugely thick dead ivy. The notes I had from the 80's suggested notching the base of some stools to encourage new shoots. This has worked well.

One frustration was having no material for stakes and nowhere I could cut or buy binders. The Forestry Commission (once an easy source of bean and peasticks) now wants some sort of certification and 3rd party liability insurance. A local farmer helped us out but the binders could have been better. 

The age thing doesn't bother us too much as we're pretty active and lucky enough not to have dodgy knees, hips or backs. We both felt we benefited from the exercise. 

Here's to healthy hedges!