From which side to work?
Midlands and other ‘single brushed’ hedges are asymmetrical, with most of the cutting done on the near side, and the brush angled out on the far or field side. Stand on the near side to work. If you stand on the far side you will find the brushy ends get in your way.
A Midlands hedge has a ditch on the near side, which helps protect it from grazing. Normally this makes working on the near side easier, as you can stand in the ditch and cut the pleachers without having to crouch.
Where the hedge has large gaps you may find it easy to change sides to suit the individual pleacher. When laying ‘from the root’, you may have to work around the base. Generally, though, it is energy-consuming and entangling to cross the hedge line frequently.
Which direction to lay?
If you are right handed, it is easiest to cut the pleachers from the right side of the stem, and steady them and guide them into position with the left hand. This means that as you face the hedge you begin at its left end and lay the pleachers, working along to your right.
When more than one person is laying the hedge, all must work in the same direction. If left and right-handed people work on the same hedge, the ‘odd one out’ should accommodate by laying from the field side. Note that the chain saw allows either a left or right hand cut, so that the operator can easily lay ‘the wrong way round’. This is useful where the slope of the land or a fence along one side of the hedge dictates the direction of lay.
Most hedgers think that a downward sloping hedge ‘looks wrong’, and where there is a choice, always lay uphill even on a shallow slope. Others are less concerned, and lay from the more convenient side, regardless of slope. The argument that pleachers must be laid uphill to maintain the flow of sap has no validity (see above), although bending down to near horizontal is likely to damage the cambium. As the diagram shows, you would need to be laying on an extremely steep slope, in order for such a degree of bend to be necessary.
As more and more hedge laying is done near busy roads, a new rule is emerging. The rule is to lay the pleachers in the direction of traffic flow. The reasons are firstly, that the draught from heavy lorries will blow the hedge in that direction, and help keep the pleachers in place. If laid against the traffic flow, the draught tends to lift the pleachers. Secondly, if vehicles leave the road and crash into the hedge, there will be less damage to the hedge and the vehicle. As there is normally a fence between the hedge and the field, the hedge has to be laid ‘left-handed’. This is not a problem for professional hedge layers who virtually all use chain saws.
In addition, a particular ‘motorway’ style of hedge laying has developed (106).
Auxiliary work
Hedge laying often involves additional work which must be planned in advance.
Hedge cuttings and rubbish
Collection of non flammable rubbish, and collection or burning of cuttings will involve additional time or manpower. Provide a skip, tractor and trailer or sacks for rubbish. Old fencing, and especially barbed wire, is a particular problem to remove. Use fencing pliers to remove wire from posts or trees, collecting up all the staples as you go. Roll up the old wire as tightly as possible on an old post and tie it securely. Put it in a skip or trailer for disposal. Corrugated iron, bedsteads and other material may have been used to patch up the hedge in the past.
Cuttings or brash from hedge laying can either be burned or chipped on site, or removed for similar disposal elsewhere. As you lay the hedge, put some cuttings aside for use as deadwood to fill gaps, and to fill the gap where the laid hedge meets the unlaid hedge or other boundary. Those not needed can be disposed of at the end of the project.
On a typical weekend hedge laying project, burning on site is the usual answer. Burning is not environmentally sound, but a bonfire on a winter ’s day is usually appreciated by volunteers, and providing the labour to drag brash and tend the fire is not usually a problem. If a chipper and suitably trained operator is available, this is a good solution, as the resulting wood chips can be used as a mulch. Do not use the mulch on the hedge itself, unless you are planting new hedging plants, as a thick mulch will tend to suppress basal shoots from the hedge plants. Chipping is essential on some roadside sites, where burning is not allowed for safety reasons, or because the road authority has no access to adjacent land for burning. Chipping is preferred by many contractors because it is quicker than burning. Note that the chippings may not be suitable for play or path surfacing, because of the thorn content.
Transport is a significant factor in deciding what to do with cuttings. Hedge cuttings of hawthorn and blackthorn are spiny, bulky and difficult to compact and transport. Piling them up as ‘habitat piles’ is not usually an option because of the space they take up. Chipping significantly reduces the bulk, but you will still have to transport the chippings if you are not re-using them on site.
If burning is the only option, agree the fire site with the landowner or site manager. On good grassland, remove about a square metre of turf first and put it aside to repair the site afterwards. Use dry kindling, newspaper and matches to start the fire, and do not use tyres. Cut some of the bushy material with loppers, or sned with a billhook, so that you have a small pile of closely packed branches to get the fire going. Once the fire is going well, you can put the material on with a minimum of snedding, but put the butt ends to the wind and keep the fire as small as possible. Keep up with the burning so that you’re not left with a huge pile at the end, and allow time for the fire to burn down and be made safe before leaving the site. When the fire is cold, the ashes can be raked up and the turf replaced. Wood ash is a good fertiliser for fruit trees and vegetable gardens.
On other sites, where farm machinery is available and damage to the ground is not so important, a larger fire can be made. Lay the cuttings or brash as shown, parallel to the hedge, and it is then a quick job for a tractor with loader to push the brash into a big heap for burning.
Ditches and banks
Many hedges have either ditches or banks, and these should be maintained as part of the hedge laying operation. Ditching is carried out after the hedge has been laid; banking and turfing before the hedge has been laid, but after the preliminary cleaning out has been finished. For details on banking and turfing, see Chapter 13 – Banking and turfing.
Cut back the ditch to reveal any land drain outlets. dig the bottom out to 6” (150mm) below the outlets. The ditch should have a sloping profile, wider at the top than bottom. Soil from the ditch is traditionally banked around the stools of the hedge, leaving about 2” (50mm) of stool showing. Some workers say the soil soon falls back into the ditch, and that instead it should be heaped along the edge of the ditch away from the hedge, or spread on the adjoining field. However, this may spoil permanent pasture and encourage weeds. Others say that soil spread along the base of the hedge will suppress basal hedge shoots, smother any woodland-type hedge flora, and encourage the growth of common weedy species such as cleavers, nettle and bramble. discuss with the landowner the best solution for the site in question.
Protecting the hedge
The hedge may need protection from browsing stock and wild animals, to ensure that the new growth develops unchecked until the hedge is of sufficient size and vigour to withstand browsing.
The protection needed will depend on the style of hedge laying, and the planned use of the adjacent land for the next two to three years. If neither side of the hedge is subject to grazing, no measures need be taken.
Midlands hedges need no protection against livestock on the field side, as long as there are sufficient pleachers to make a thick ‘brush’ to keep stock off. The near or ditch side must be kept free from grazing by an electric or wire fence. Welsh hedges (Chapter 11 – Laying Welsh and South Western hedges) are designed in general to be firm against sheep, and various stratagems are used to protect the shoots. With the high banked flying hedge, or the thick double brush hedge, the hedge itself protects the new shoots on both sides. Other Welsh styles make use of deadwood. Banked hedges are usually fenced against stock for the first few years after bank repair and laying, until the bank has consolidated and the hedge grown sufficiently to stop stock clambering up.
Temporary electric fences are the easiest way of keeping stock off newly laid hedges, and to protect the new shoots. Horses are very curious and destructive, and will pull binders out of newly-laid hedges! Electric tape is needed against them for the first couple of winters to protect the laid structure of the hedge. Most cattle are now housed in winter, so winter damage is not usually a problem. Temporary electric fencing or ‘strip grazing’ is used by most dairy farmers to ensure efficient use of grass, so there is no problem in protecting newly laid hedges as necessary. Strip grazing is not so common for sheep, and newly laid hedges in sheep pasture may need a temporary stock netting fence for the first few years.
In practice, hedge laying activity tends to be concentrated on ‘visible’ hedges alongside roads and drives, with the near side to the road where protection is not needed.
