organic guy

unfortunately this has been stood dead for a while, if straight I can slit it at 6in rings.

Snap, been clearing up wind blown ash and elm from the lane side. I describe it as foraging but wood goblin is better. Bl**dy elm is a nightmare to split.

Kav Just looked at your pictures, loving your work.

Just looking to set ours up to tick over while we away. It appears that when the engineer showed me how to, he left it slow and low mode which shows up as low steady electric use, probably a better way to run it although we did have it tripping out because flows were too low. We'll see what happens this week

Yes please! Really.

Finally finished first length of the year, first field we have done the hedge on all 4 sides, think first length was 2017. Tricky little length in the corner next to the gate, pleased with how we filled the gaps and a couple of big pleachers without much length. Stringed up after the picture☺️

Forgot to say, these pictures prove the value of the work you are doing to maintain the forest.☺️

They could be the ones which infect the dung flies causing them to land and die at a suitable height to release spores to travel further!

Wow! Thank you for posting these, we are about to explore the temperate rain forests on Dartmoor. Went to go to Piles Copse at Christmas but got fogged off.

Good idea, the only sisal I've got is Binder twine, must be 60 + years old and not thick enough. Big bale string is a cheap waste product but does require clearing up, in some hedges most of the strings are chewed through by rabbits by the next winter.

First question is does it need to be stock proof? Does it need to be attractive? The smartest and most stock proof is Midland, which is basically what you have done. It is also the most labour intensive and requires the most materials. The simplest and requiring the least materials is what we do on the farm which is a poor imitation of Devon or Berkeley style. Pleached over , laid close to the ground and held in place with big bale string.(which will be removed next winter. The stakes and binders are only there to hold the pleachers in place, make it more stock proof and attractive. For a low hedge you could crook it like Devon style, higher you could just stake it as in some of the welsh styles. have a look here National Hedgelaying Society WWW.HEDGELAYING.ORG.UK

Depending on what you want to achieve you don't have to use stakes and binders

Bigger hedge = bigger satisfaction !

The angle is not of great significance, except for your personal preference. Much of your regrowth will come from sprouts at the heel. Plant density on a young maiden hedge like that has no effect on the angle, purely how hard you push it down. Older, heavier hedge you would need to thin hard to get it low. Just finished length of hedge on farm, 150 years old roughly, been laid at least once but not for 60 years. Crab apple was quite a challenge, laid low to encourage maximum new growth from stump.

You should be very pleased with that as a first attempt, or a 2nd ,3rd or 4th attempt!