Hedgelaying pics

[gary112]

1 hour ago, timbernut said:

Is willow any good for binders?

Ive never used willow but have seen it used so mi guess its ok

[woody paul]

1 hour ago, timbernut said:

Is willow any good for binders?

You can use any type of wood for binders. I have even used untreated roof battens land owner had laying around. Just use like a rail threaded around stakes. 

Edited February 14, 2021 by woody paul

[timbernut]

I thought it would b, but wondered if there some sort of snobbism involved as a chap who does hedgelaying in our area always asks if I’ve got hazel in spite of there bein loads of nice willow coppice closer to him!
This is prob one of my favourite threads on AT, I don’t do hedge laying but would like to, though a friend and I did do 300m of 7 yr old mix species a few yrs ago ( took 2 days) by doing pleach cuts and pinning down with the next one, no stakes or binders. It didn’t look as beautiful as the stuff you pros do but has worked well
Sadly the customer won’t shell out for cost of materials for doing proper job as there are literally miles of hedge that would benefit from laying now the spirals have been removed

[Dorset Hedgelayer]

3 hours ago, timbernut said:

Is willow any good for binders?

Perfectly ok to use

 

[kav]

6 hours ago, timbernut said:

Is willow any good for binders?

I'm using it at the moment, nice and straight, and consistent size. Maybe doesn't go in as tight as hazel. Then again I'm never happy with my binding

[Guest Gimlet]

Back on the hedge from hell. Actually this stretch is a bit better. Bullace rather than blackthorn so far less dead wood and fewer brambles. But still a tangled mass nearly ten feet wide.

 

Just about making some sort of hedge out of it though. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kav]

10 hours ago, Gimlet said:

Back on the hedge from hell. Actually this stretch is a bit better. Bullace rather than blackthorn so far less dead wood and fewer brambles. But still a tangled mass nearly ten feet wide.

 

Just about making some sort of hedge out of it though. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah I've done a few like that. End up clearing loads of nice straight stuff thats off line just to get to ropey hedge in the middle!!

[Marc Lewis]

There are some fantastic hedge laying pics here. It really is an art

[AHPP]

The laboriousness aside, why wouldn’t/couldn’t a wide hedge be plaited at its current width? Light not getting to the middle?

 

 

[Guest Gimlet]

9 hours ago, AHPP said:

The laboriousness aside, why wouldn’t/couldn’t a wide hedge be plaited at its current width? Light not getting to the middle?

 

 

Pretty much just that. A hedge doesn't need to be wide to be stock proof. In fact it's better if it is kept narrow so the stems are not crowded and forced to compete and the sun can get to all the way through it to encourage stout growth. 

If the above hedge (if you can call it that - it's really just a scrub belt) had been laid years ago and properly maintained instead of being allowed to sprawl sideways, the individual trees would have been three or more inches thick instead of a mass of leggy and spindly stems no more an inch thick. 

 

The stretch I was on just before Christmas that was such a nightmare was mostly blackthorn, which in my view is next to useless as a hedging species. It's a pioneer scrub species that colonises by suckering and covering ground rather than gaining height. It doesn't tend to produce new leaders on old wood, preferring to send up suckers from its root network some distance away from the parent stem, and when that original stem becomes old, congested or damaged, the plant transfers it's energy to the suckers and allows the old stem to die. So when a blackthorn hedge becomes too large and neglected - or if you traumatise it with repeated flailing - the main stems become unproductive and the plant abandons them, the centre of the hedge dies and hollows out and  bramble, briar, clematis etc move in to fill the void and you get a mass of little suckers advancing sideways into the field. 

 

If that ten foot wide hedge in the pic had been blackthorn rather than bullace it would have been hollow in the middle once all the rubbish and deadwood was cut out, with two lines of stunted and weedy stems on either side. Hedges like that are borderline grub up and start again candidates. 

 

Narrow and strong in full sunlight is best for all species. Ideally plenty of livestock too to do the trimming for you...

 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by Gimlet