Hedgerow

Not entirely sure what I'm doing but am on a mission to restore order into roadside hedgerow that has been neglected for years. Have been hacking out dead stuff & pruning hawthorn & pal with a chainsaw came over yesterday & we lopped most of the tall stuff which was 20'+. Have left a few of the larger trees through indecisiveness. Have ordered 50 hawthorn saplings fm a site I found on here & have bought 5 sacks of tree planting compost & some spirals to protect the plants when they arrive. Didn't think to take a before pic. Only remembered my camera when we were half way through

 

End result

 

Sounds like you've got it under control. The only thing I'd add is to keep an eye on your new saplings when they go in. You've bought the guards so rabbits shouldn't be too much bother, but now you've cleared a lot of the old hedge, lots more sunlight will get to ground level so there'll be a lot of weeds threatening to block out your saplings. The problem will go away on its own once the hedgerow thickens up.

By cutting back the existing hawthorn, you'll have breathed new life into it. You watch over the course of this year, it will send out side shoots at a phenomenal rate.

Is there much diversity in the hedge? If not, I'd be thinking about chucking in some wild honeysuckle and some wild roses.

Also don't forget to get some native flower seeds for the bottom, you can mixes especially for hedgerows containing the likes of honesty and campion.

 

Thanks Clueless. No re diversity. Should I wait for the hawthorn to establish or plant other stuff now? I like the native flower seeds suggestion

 

Good to see you progressing so well Cyclingvet

Thanks for the pics and updates

Regards Jack McHammocklashing

 

I don't think there's any advantage to waiting, but at the same time, if it was me, I wouldn't feel under any pressure just yet either. If you have the time and the energy, you could still catch the back end of this bare root season, otherwise it will do no harm to wait til the end of the year for next bare root season.

 

As Clueless said, keep an eye on the new hawthorn plants once they're in.

As I'm sure you know, we tend to have quite dry springs here in Suffolk; this is the crucial period for newly planted bare root stock.

The planting compost will help. If you can afford it, I'd give each plant a handful of water retaining granules too, my experience has been that this does improve survival rates in a dry spring/summer.

When the dry weather arrives, a good soaking once a week will give them a fighting chance of making it through that critical first summer.

It would also be a good idea to keep competition to a minimum for the new plants in their first year, the existing trees and hedge plants will already be competing for moisture and nutrients, so keep the weeds and ivy around the new plants under control as much as possible in the first year.

 

Thanks Trunky. Going to make a real effort to keep them watered & weeded.Mildly hazardous as hedgerow is on an A road & I'm sure the passing motorists think I'm a nutter tending my hedge on the roadside but hey ho! Giving me a lot of joy restoring it.

 

Glad to see the hedge taking good shape.
Hope that pup is not pinching the branches to much:doggysmooze:
Looks a lot like my pup. Called our winnie cause she whines alot.
Keep it up and the new stuff will tie in nicely.

 

Whilst the hedge is in a 'reduced' state it could also be a good idea to put in a few roosting pockets and open fronted bird boxes for the likes of robins and wrens and then as everything starts to regrow they will be nice and sheltered.

You could also consider putting a hedgehog home in there somewhere too :D

As well as that I would follow the advice already given, try and keep newly plant stuff watered and keep weeds away from them for the first year, then once they're established, some foxgloves, celendines, primroses (native), wood anemone, English blubells along the base would look a treat..

Good luck :thumb:

 

Hows the hedge coming along now, any more pictures?

Also could you put in some Holly so as the birds have a winter feast

 

Good work restoring the hedge here, but to be honest I don't think you've gone far enough. The trees you've cut down would be better coppiced right down to the base (or near to it), as otherwise all the regrowth will be from the top of the cut stumps and it will still be very gappy at the base.

This is a major problem with the majority of the hedges I see round here - they're repeatedly flail cut at the same height and they just become more and more gappy low down, plus of course they hardly flower/fruit since all the previous year's wood is flailed off. It's much better to be really drastic once in a while, then cut as little as possible over the next few years - certainly not a hard annual trim (except where necessary when it's growing out into the road).

I did the same with an overgrown hawthorn hedge here last year, which two years previously one of my relatives had cut to about the same 5' height - very strong regrowth from the top, but nothing lower down. Some of the stumps haven't regrown but most are reshooting nicely, plus with new plants of a range of different species filling in the gaps.