THE GOOD LIFE
Ideas and advice for would-be smallholders in the country and the city
There were hardly any hedges when we arrived on the smallholding. The previous owners had used the plot as a pig farm and the fields were large and fenced. We needed to parcel off the land into smaller sections for sheep and horses, and separate the garden from the fields, and so set about putting up post-and-rail fences and planting hedgerows as quickly as we could.
Now, ten years later, the wooden fences are about ready to be replaced but the hedges have gone from strength to strength. March is an ideal time to plant a hedgerow for two reasons: the first is that you can use bare-root plants (grown in open ground, then dug up for replanting during the dormant season), which makes it cheaper; the second is that your hedgerow will stand a better chance of taking hold if planted now, when the plants are still dormant but there’s less chance of a heavy frost.
I’m evangelical about hedgerows. They’re critical for the survival of so many of our most treasured creatures. From songbirds to hedgehogs, bees to bats and butterflies, a vast army of animals relies on hedgerows as shelter and a source of food. They are absolutely teeming with life – one study found more than 2,000 species in
one 85-metre stretch. Hedgerows also create wildlife corridors, which allow species to travel safely between isolated patches of wild habitats; hedgehogs, for example, can often roam for more than two kilometres a night, in search of food or a mate. This makes the planting of hedgerows important not just in rural areas but also in suburbs and cities, where gardens are often separated by hard boundaries such as walls or solid fencing.
All types of hedging are a boon for wildlife but, as a general rule, the more species of plant in a hedge, the greater the variety of creatures it can support. You’ll need to think about what you want the hedge to do. If it’s for privacy, you might want to include evergreen or semievergreen species – such as holly, yew or privet, or beech (which is deciduous but holds its dead leaves until the new ones come through). If a hedge is for security, certain thorny species can be a good deterrent – especially blackthorn, but also holly or hawthorn. And if you want to create a hedgerow with maximum wildlife interest, include species that provide blossom, nuts, haws or berries.
There are lots of different plants to choose from, but it’s worth taking advice from a hedging company (see right) about the correct blend for your soil and position, as some species will struggle with exposed or coastal sites, or heavy soil. Most wildlife hedgerows, however, are either 50 per cent hawthorn or blackthorn, with about five or six different other species making up the other half – such as wild privet, bird cherry, field maple, hornbeam, hazel, guelder rose, crab apple, dog rose, elder, spindle and sea buckthorn. And take heart: when we planted our hedges a decade ago, our three-year-old daughter could just about jump over them. Now, both hedges and child are threatening to tower over me…
The more species of plant in a hedge, the greater variety of creatures it supports