Hedgelaying pics

[gary112]

2 hours ago, difflock said:

That deserves way more than a "like" icon.

Proper gobsmackingly good, and so satisfying to look at.

To my eye, there is more art in that, than that to be found hanging in most galleries or museums.

Marcus

Thanks Marcus,appreciate the comments

[gary112]

3 hours ago, Stere said:

Fence being  close must make it really akward?

Not too much of a problem as i will lay it from the other side where theres no fence

[gary112]

3 hours ago, Gimlet said:

Money. 

In fact, I must write to my MP. Back in October some clients had a very nice letter from him complimenting them on a garden hedge I'd laid. 

I must write to him and thank him for his comments and see if he can't be recruited to speak up for hedges and hedge laying at government level. Now we've left the EU and  the CAP and can choose how we support agriculture and countryside stewardship, it's the ideal opportunity to prioritise hedgerow management. Politicians keep telling us we need to plant more trees to combat climate change, so if they're going to provide public money or subsidy to that end, why not put some of it into planting hedges? 250,000 miles of ancient hedgerow has been lost in the UK since the second world war. That's five trees for every yard. And if they're laid, far less diesel being burned by contractors threshing the life out of them every year with a tractor flail just because some bureaucrat is paying them to do it for the sake of it. 

Totally agree

[gary112]

4 hours ago, Gimlet said:

Better now. Started a nice one in the new year, very like the frosty one in your picture, clean young mixed native hedge, planted for laying. 

Before that though I was on the worst hedge I've had in ages. A terrible blackthorn/bullace monstrosity that had been flailed to death, so that many of the stems in the middle had died out and the plants had suckered sideways into the field instead, leaving a thicket six or seven feet wide with little in the middle but deadwood and everything small contorted and out of line and the whole lot absolutely infested with bramble and briar. Trying to make something presentable from that was a nightmare. On top of that, like the lad Lux mentions, I had rain virtually every day and I couldn't drive up to the site because the ground was too wet so the only shelter I had in downpours was a draughty tarpaulin bivvie. I had to use a quad bike to get across the fields which sprayed liquid clay over my tools in the trailer.

Struggled to lay 10 metres a day. Looked OK in the end but didn't bother to take any pictures. I've got to go back there in February and lay another 200 metres of the same stuff. Got to be done too because they've got grant funding.

They're very nice people though and they're trying to do the right thing with their hedges so I'll stick with it. Hopefully it will be cold and dry in Feb...    

I,ve had a few like that over the years,the last one like that,i basically ended up making a whole new hedge line by laying the suckers,it turned out ok in the end but as you say i was down to 10/12 mtrs a day

[organic guy]

a picture of the wife and my "lockdown hedge". Only posted it after hearing you guys talking about loving the regeneration of an old overgrown hedge. This is one we let grow up for CSS expecting to get grant money to relay. We was stitched up but it still needs doing. Not been done in at least 50 years, love finding old pleachers buried under the trash at the bottom. Will be a style unknown to you experts, "North Wilts modified", big bale string to hold in place, pleachers laid "so a lamb cannot get underneath" as told by me Dad. The main thing is "regeneration" of the old plants, all planted in about 1860.

[organic guy]

The delight we get when we do this hedge,this little chap turns up everytime.

[Guest Gimlet]

Very similar to Dorset style except you're using string instead of hazel bonds.

I used to know several old Dorset hedge layers years ago who'd tie down with thin ungalvanised wire. It turned rusty almost immediately rendering it invisible and it rusted away to nothing before it cut into the stems, by which time the hedge had stitched itself togther.

Edited January 12, 2021 by Gimlet

[Guest Gimlet]

3 minutes ago, organic guy said:

The delight we get when we do this hedge,this little chap turns up everytime.

I find robins are usually the first to investigate when you start laying a hedge. Bold little fellas.

[Dan Maynard]

Money. 
In fact, I must write to my MP. Back in October some clients had a very nice letter from him complimenting them on a garden hedge I'd laid. 
I must write to him and thank him for his comments and see if he can't be recruited to speak up for hedges and hedge laying at government level. Now we've left the EU and  the CAP and can choose how we support agriculture and countryside stewardship, it's the ideal opportunity to prioritise hedgerow management. Politicians keep telling us we need to plant more trees to combat climate change, so if they're going to provide public money or subsidy to that end, why not put some of it into planting hedges? 250,000 miles of ancient hedgerow has been lost in the UK since the second world war. That's five trees for every yard. And if they're laid, far less diesel being burned by contractors threshing the life out of them every year with a tractor flail just because some bureaucrat is paying them to do it for the sake of it. 

Money and I guess consequent shortage of folk to do it. I felled a load of trees out of overstood hedge for a local farmer, who said he cut them himself 30 years ago but the Parkinson's means he's not going to do them again.

He said it's hard to find contractors willing to do hedge work that can't be done from a tractor seat.

[gary112]

Another one finished,a pain in the ass to do,old hedge with gaps and stumps,just do the best you can with what you got to work with