Row of Hawthorn...

[panyan]

Well - the current tally stands at:

 

- Chainsaw at 4ft: 1 vote

- Chainsaw from ground level: 5 votes

- Lay it: 6 votes

 

Considering the budget wont permit laying it, perhaps there is a hedge laying competition that would like to have a go?

[Goaty]

Well - the current tally stands at:

 

 

 

- Chainsaw at 4ft: 1 vote

 

- Chainsaw from ground level: 5 votes

 

- Lay it: 6 votes

 

 

 

Considering the budget wont permit laying it, perhaps there is a hedge laying competition that would like to have a go?

 

 

A good way of getting it done super cheap. Don't let a college have a go unless the down to the ground option is also ok. Our local college would send a pig farming lecturer to supervise. That is not a fib either!!!!!

[SteveA]

You could try flipping a coin....

heads = lay it

tails = lay it

 

So go on, try flipping that coin.... and dont forget to post the result.

cheers, Steve

[Richard 1234]

Lay it and do the job right. This one was at the height of the ivy on the lime and up to 12" diameter.[ATTACH]210601[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

[ATTACH]210602[/ATTACH]

 

 

I'm really surprised how little needs to be attached to not kill it!

[Graham]

I'm really surprised how little needs to be attached to not kill it!

 

Stronger attachment than it looks. It's a balance really. Leave too much attached and the pleacher (laid stem) will produce too much growth. You need the pleacher to live and the stool to produce lots of coppice growth.

 

Many people are afraid to cut too much and you end up with a poor hedge that won't lay well in twenty years time.

[Richard 1234]

Stronger attachment than it looks. It's a balance really. Leave too much attached and the pleacher (laid stem) will produce too much growth. You need the pleacher to live and the stool to produce lots of coppice growth.

 

 

 

Many people are afraid to cut too much and you end up with a poor hedge that won't lay well in twenty years time.

 

 

Well it looks a great job you do👍

How many years does it take to get reasonable at it?

[Graham]

Well it looks a great job you do👍

How many years does it take to get reasonable at it?

 

I've done it on and off for 35 years. Concentrated more on it in the last three years and into the competition side too.

 

Some people pick it up really quickly and can be making a reasonable job on easy hedges in no time at all. Others can do it for years and still be like a pig with a shovel

[agg221]

To the OP, you don't mention how long the row is, what the setting is or how you are connected with it.

 

You say budget doesn't allow for laying but if it did, would this be your preference? If so, have you had any quotes? If it's not too prominent, have you/the owner considered giving it a go, ideally with some input from someone who knows what they are doing for the first bit? If it all goes wrong, you end up cutting it down to ground level anyway so all you lose is time.

 

I wouldn't claim to be great at laying hedges - definitely slow, but I have done my own after having spent a day working with someone who is very good and it was enough to not get it completely wrong (at least, it is still growing, both the bits I laid and the stools). You can get away with much more variable stakes and binders than a pro would use - I got most of mine from overgrown material in the hedgerows I am doing but anything big enough and the right length and fairly straight will do for stakes and anything long, straight and flexible will do for binders - even brambles used to be used in the past.

 

Alec

[Bogoak]

Just chop the thing off at ground level and save yourself a lot of work. Hedge laying isn't necessary to produce a good hedge. Don't get me wrong, i love to see it, and appreciate the craftsmanship, but unless you particularly want to have a go...... . And as has been said, if you cut at 4ft, the hedge won't fill in at the base. Chop it at ground level and you get lots of fresh new growth where it's needed.