Any ideas on restoring a snow collapsed yew hedge?

[Deni]

A friends neighbour has asked me to have a look at there yew hedge which has collapsed from the heavy snow we had, i havent looked at it yet but was wondering if any could give me any advice before i have a look. Someone suggested taking a bit of weight of it and using fence posts to keep it up???, any help would be great, cheers!

[nepia]

Yew's springy stuff. Most of it's probably gone back to where it was or thereabouts. A trim and some judicious weaving of thin branches may be all that's needed. Better to let the hedge support itself rather than start introducing artificial support so if you approach it with that in mind you'll probably have less work to do now and a better hedge in the long run.

 

Pics would help of course but that's my penn'orth for now.

[Mesterh]

Anything that gets half flattened by snow or err falling brash is usually best yanked a bit back into position, supported only if necessary and then left for awhile to see how it recovers.

 

I wouldnt start cutting anything off just yet unless it is really necessary. Once its gone its gone and the hedge may just slowly creep back to where it was ( with a bit of persuasion) but with an extra hole cut in to it:001_smile:

[Deni]

Im having a look at it on saturday so i will get some pics up then, just wanted a bit of an idea before i went, thanks for the help so far, cheers.

[david wood]

we have done some huge hedge restorations at work on yew and had amazing results. All cut back to main stem and allowed to flush away. see attached photos for size of job.

 

The bottom pic shows after 2-4 years of growth, the timber edging was where the hedge was out to, in the top one it was right out to grass edge.

Edited January 28, 2010 by david wood
explain pics

[Robert_S]

WOW thats cut back!! trees are amazing things. that looks an interesting place to work David where is that?

[david wood]

yeah its some cut back, end of a several year long run of them we did. havent got any photos of the first one we did, but its totally regrown and it was done in 2000.

 

Its Crathes Castle near banchory, worked there for about 13 and quarter years now.

Theres some more photos of during - and yeah the scaffold is dubious...........joys of boss knows best!

 

these show some of the other stages of the job, several different hedges.

 

The yew is incredibly hard stuff, knocked edge off chain soooooo quick.

[Robert_S]

Its Crathes Castle near banchory

 

Nice part of the world that to work, cheers for the pictures mate:thumbup1:

[David Humphries]

Its Crathes Castle near banchory, worked there for about 13 and quarter years now..

 

 

 

You lot be doing this one next then

 

Was up at Crathes last summer, great site

 

 

.

[nepia]

The pic at bottom left is surreal!

 

Deni, you should have an idea by now of what you can get away with.