Hedgelaying pics

[AHPP]

2 hours ago, Gimlet said:

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...

 

 

 

Thorough and helpful answer. Much obliged. My first thought was plait it, which I now see the problem with. My second thought was make two hedges with a six foot gap between them but I'm getting the idea that that's nearly as pointless because one side of each hedge wouldn't get animal trimmed.

[Guest Gimlet]

Devon and Dorset style hedges were traditionally double comb, that is two hedges with a space between. But they were grown on either side of a bank with ditches at the bottom, and when the ditches were dug and cleaned out the spoil was thrown on top of the bank between the two hedges. That created a sheep proof barrier. Even lambs can't roll under the hedge because of the bank and they can't simply climb over the bank because of the hedge! It's a great system but high maintenance.

 

Those hedges need regular relaying or they'll rapidly decline. Usually they were hazel so were relaid every seven to ten years, and the ditches would be re-dug and cleaned out much more regularly than that. Plenty of Devon and Dorset style hedge laying being done today, but not so many double comb ditch and bank systems survive intact. Just too much labour involved in maintaining them. But you can see the remains of them everywhere. 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by Gimlet

[ARV]

1 hour ago, Gimlet said:

 and when the ditches were dug and cleaned out the spoil was thrown on top of the bank between the two hedges. 

That'll explain why a lot of the roads/lanes In Dorset have a ruddy great bank on either side.

I went to school in Dorchester (25 odd years ago). My parents and brother live in Shitterton.

Edited February 26, 2021 by ARV

[Dorset Hedgelayer]

A bit of manual time-lapse from the current job

[lux]

Any of the Hedge layers on here happen to know who is laying the hedge in Compton village ,Surrey , just near Honey Brothers. ??

[Guest Gimlet]

On 16/10/2020 at 20:30, Gimlet said:

First one of the season finished.

It was a 12 foot high black cherry plumb garden hedge right on the roadside. The owner is aware of the silverleaf risk but opted to go ahead anyway because it was causing traffic problems and the neighbours were giving him grief about the loss of light. It has been flailed several times with no sign of disease so at 32 metres he decided it was a relatively inexpensive gamble compared with grubbing it out and starting again with a different species.

 

It wasn't particularly nice stuff to lay. I won't be rushing to do another.

 

 

 

The owner of the black cherry plum hedge I laid back in October has just sent me some pictures. It's in full blossom and appears to be doing very well, which is nice to hear. 

 

Not my first choice of species for a laid hedge. Silver leaf was a concern. No signs yet and if it leafs up thickly and continues to put on a show like that every spring it's going to make a really nice garden hedge.

 

 

Edited March 7, 2021 by Gimlet

[gary112]

7 minutes ago, Gimlet said:

The owner of the black cherry plum hedge I laid back in October has just sent me some pictures. It's in full blossom and appears to be doing very well, which is nice to hear. 

 

Not my first choice of species for a laid hedge. Silver leaf was a concern. No signs yet and if it leafs up thickly and continues to put on a show like that every spring it's going to make a really nice garden hedge.

 

 

Looks great

[Guest Gimlet]

On 26/02/2021 at 23:14, ARV said:

That'll explain why a lot of the roads/lanes In Dorset have a ruddy great bank on either side.

I went to school in Dorchester (25 odd years ago). My parents and brother live in Shitterton.

Good old Shitterton. I remember when they had a whip round to get a village sign carved on a great lump of stone because the council sign boards kept getting pinched by trophy hunters..

[ARV]

1 hour ago, Gimlet said:

Good old Shitterton. I remember when they had a whip round to get a village sign carved on a great lump of stone because the council sign boards kept getting pinched by trophy hunters..

Yes, my Dad was Chair of the Parish council. A lump of Portland stone to keep it fairly local.

[Guest Gimlet]

On 25/02/2021 at 21:57, 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. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above hedge all done.

 

 

 

And I've relented and posted a couple of pics from the hedge from hell I did for the same client just before Christmas. Horrible blackthorn basket case. Stupid wide, with nothing in the middle but deadwood and rubbish. Now the brash has been burned and you can see it, it looks ok. But the bindings hides a lot of evils. Underneath it was a pile of crap with stuff pulled in that was massively out of line just to make some sort of barrier out of it. Don't fancy another like it for a while but I think it will green fine and make a good hedge if they maintain it well.