We were absolutely delighted that Tom Fortune of Fortune and Son Hedgelaying found time in his busy schedule to squeeze in laying an overgrown beech hedge in our overflow car park.
The “hedge” had grown up into a series of small and rather leggy trees. Laying will regenerate the hedgerow by encouraging new thicker and denser growth from the base to create a linear thicket that can provide essential shelter and safe corridors for wildlife movement.
In the days before barbed wire, hedges had to be stock proof and thousands of farm hands would have spent months and months painstakingly managing hedges with slashers and axes.
Tom laid the hedge Midland style with “binders” to support the cut stems (called pleachers) while they regrow and filled in with the brash so we have an instant bushy wild home and way for bugs, birds and small mammals.
He’s promised to come back next year to lay a mixed hedgerow that we planted as a wind barrier for the vegetable garden.
A Place to Grow
Want to learn how to grow your own food? Rachel Hammond and the edge landscaping team with help from the Sheepdrove team are busy setting
