Hedge Laying

One of the most satisfying tasks which we take part in is the laying of a hedge. Somehow it combines a traditional craft of managing a hedgerow with a delightful art form finishing up with a product which is, purpose built, beautiful and useful.

As hedges mature they grow taller and lose side growth at the base. These gaps create passages for wild animals which wear into larger gaps rendering the hedge less effective at containing stock. Left unmanaged a hedgerow will continue to grow upwards and outwards and will eventually become a line of trees. Farm birds require a dense hedge as a refuge and roosting place.

 

A laid hedge is one which is totally stock proof, uniform, closely formed right down to ground level making it a real haven for farm birds and easier to manage with mechanical cutting devices. The first stage in the hedge laying process is to harvest the raw materials for the process. Stakes, which are the fence posts for the hedge and binders, the long flexible wands which bind the structure together. The best source of these is hazel. The ideal stakes are straight, 2m lengths of hazel of approximately 4cm diameter. Binders are long straight lengths of thin flexible stems typically 3+m in length, and 2cm in diameter. Both components are obtained by coppicing. Both components need to be harvested as near as possible to the actual date of hedge laying while they retain their flexibility and before they dry out becoming brittle.

It is important to decide on a direction in which to work. The trunks should be cut to lay uphill. We start by cleaning the growth from the side of the trunk which is going to finish up on the underside of the layered hedge. The tricky part of the process follows when we make a cut at the base of the trunk on the side which will finish facing upward. The cut slices downward toward the base of the trunk at an angle of 15 degrees to the vertical finishing up as close to the ground as possible. A second cut is made from the base of the trunk, taking out a long wedge. This leaves a tongue connecting the upper part of the tree to its base thin enough to allow the tree to be bent over to lay along the line of the hedge close to the horizontal. Each tree in line lays on top of its neighbour as we work along.

The stakes are laced through the layered trunks so that they form an upright line of posts 40cm apart along the centre line of the hedge. They are hammered into the ground until firm. The most complicated job comes next, binding the hedge together using the binders. Each area of the UK has its own style for hedge laying, we use the “Southern Style” based on starting a binder behind each stake twisting the binders with each other and with the stakes at a uniform height along the top line of the hedge. This should hold the whole structure together. Great care is taken at this stage that the line of binders forms a straight line.