Thursday 5 February 2015

Hedge to be laid

 
Just inside the main entrance to Filnore Woods there is a short length of old hedgerow which we intend reconstituting as a laid hedge.
 
We have already cut out quite a lot of the elder, which is no good for hedging, and cleared much of the undergrowth.  There's still a bit more elder to excise.  As you can see in the picture above, all we shall have left are a few knobbly old hawthorns in a rather uneven hedge bank.
 
We shall atempt to lay these by cutting part way through the stems at the base and folding them into a near horizontal position, something like this old hedgerow in Thornbury, which was laid in February 2011. 
 
 
Then we shall beef up the resulting hedge by weaving hazel poles and brushwood between one row of vertical stakes to create a temporary fence. 


The top is finished off with 'hetherings', long thin lengths of wood, twisted together to lock the rest in place.
 
 
 
 
Hopefully the horizontal hawthorn will send up shoots along its length, creating a dense but manageable hedge.
 

 
That is the aim we aspire to. 
Watch this space.
 



Don't take my word for it see what the Woodland Trust has to say about hedges and their importance to wildlife and hence to us all.
 
Click on this link
 









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