Topic: EU funding for allotment hedging - tell me more.....

[Robert_Brenchley]

It's very effective, especially with an old hedge. You only need to do it once in a generation.

[SMP1704]

With damage like this, I don't think the saplings would stay in the ground very long.  Time for a re-think :'(  but I thought the bench was a nice touch ???

[Oldmanofthewoods]

Good grief, that's dreadful!  I fail to understand the mentality of some people.  No, you're right, a nearly planted hedge wouldn't survive a sustained assult like that; it wouldn't be strong enough to look after itself.

Peter, I can't believe you think that coppicing will create a hedge, what on earth gave you that idea?  If you coppiced a hedge, there would be no hedge, would there?  Crackers!  Unless of course you are a wind-up merchant in which case I refuse to join a battle of wits with an unarmed man!   :D

[Robert_Brenchley]

I'll get a photo then; unfortunately, I didn't take them as I went so I can't illustrate the process. You won't be able to fault the end result though. When I inherited to, it was getting to the point where it was effectively a row of trees. All I did was cut the lot back almost to ground level, then prune hard once a year. The great advantage is that you get lots of shoots coming up from low down, and no dead wood.

Somewhere, and I'm not sure where, I have a book on hedging which documents the different styles of hefge management. Inevitably, I can't find it when I need it!

[Oldmanofthewoods]

Ah now I understand.  Clear fell old hedge line, interplant with new hedgers, then lay the new growth?  Just hard pruning would reduce the longevity of the hedge too much I feel or you would just clear fell it all every few years to renew bottom growth.

Jack.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I only put a few extras in; I need to get a couple of hundred and do it properly as the side hedges are really gappy and people don't like having their hedges felled! For many years, the committee was advising people to cut them down to a couple of feet high and let them regenerate, with dire results. I'm not sure whether it reduces longevity at all, but the hedges are 160-odd years old, and still going strong.

[Sinbad7]

On our site part of the perimeter is a Beech hedge and has been there for years.  Parts of it are dying off, has anyone any ideas what to do with it?  It would be impossible for us to remove it all and plant a complete new hedge but the gaps are getting bigger and bigger.

I was told you can't grow much else with Beech is this true?  Or should we just replace with Beech where the hedge has died?

Many thanks

[Robert_Brenchley]

Why are parts dying off? If you replant without sorting that one out, it may well not work.

[Oldmanofthewoods]

Sounds like age if it has been there for years, but it might be a fungus has got to it.  True, not much will grow under beech so maybe you will have to create gaps and infill with other native hardwoods; or carry on with beech.

Peter's suggestion of clear fell and replant would remove any effective barrier for several years.

Plant and lay would also remove an effective barrier unless you could ditch and aim at creating a dutch bank (ditch and bank with hedge on top).

Peter's point is very important though, be sure of what is killing it.

[Sinbad7]

Many thanks for the helpful replies.

Think I will just replant with beech as I don't think it has a fungal disease but has started dying off from old age.

[Oldmanofthewoods]

Perhaps you could start planting bigger gaps with something other than beech as you will be able to get young trees for free?  Hazel, hawthorn, field maple, blackthorn etc etc.

Just a thought as I don't know what access you have to beech saplings.

Either way, bloody good for you! 

Jack