Hedging your bets
I talked a bit about hedges at the end of last month’s column, so thought I would expand on that this month. January is a time of dormancy and preparation in the garden and so it is the ideal time to think about planting new hedging or enriching an existing hedge.
Too often these days, hedging, particularly in residential areas, consists of lifeless blocks of non-native evergreen shrubs like Red Robin (Photinia),
Cherry Laurel or Leyland
Cypress (Leylandii). Functional though they may be, in terms of screening, the wildlife value of these sorts of green walls is pretty much zero (although I must confess that I have once seen a Firecrest skulking its way through the mixed evergreen hedge we inherited in our new front garden!). While there is certainly a place in any garden for a selection of non-native plants, providing they offer some form of value for wildlife, if you’re after a hedge that will provide the most opportunities for birds and other animals and insects, then native species really are the best.
If you have the space to do so, the more you can plant, the better when it comes to hedging – ‘bigger, better, more joined up’, to borrow the now-famous phrase from the 2010 Making Space for Nature report by Sir John Lawton. Hedges are corridors for wildlife – the longer and wider they are, and the more of them there are across the landscape, the better. Think of your garden as a wildlife hub – a hotel or restaurant for birds, small mammals, invertebrates and more. Add some hedging to your garden and you have also added not just more prime real estate in which birds and other species can live but also a four-lane wildlife highway for said species (and others) to travel into, out of and through your garden.
There are all manner of hedging mixes on the market to choose from, but two things to consider are the size of the plant and where they are coming from. On the first point, it might seem logical to think that bigger, stronger plants are more likely to survive – and you can spend more on larger, pot-grown shrubs – but in terms of native hedging, small, bare root whips are your best bet. You can get more of them for your money, pack them in nice and close (six to eight per metre in staggered double rows is standard) and they will form a lovely dense growth after a few years. On the latter point, ideally plants grown as near as possible to where you live are the most likely to thrive and be suited to the local climate and wildlife. Plus, of course, it reduces the amount of carbon being emitted in terms of mileage from grower to buyer. In terms of species, think about those that will provide the most value for wildlife. Natives such as Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Hazel, Dog Rose, Wayfaring Tree, Guelderrose and Spindle are all popular in hedging mixes and will offer a host of opportunities for wildlife as they grow – places for birds to nest, flowers for pollinators and a bounty of fruit. If you are worried about privacy, then you can add in a few Hollies or Yews as well, but not so many that they over-dominate. If rabbits or deer are an issue in your area, you may want to protect your reached a couple of inches thick or more at the base, you may even want to consider trying a bit of hedge laying, but I’ll leave the advice on how to do that for another time.