Hedging Happiness

I planted my first native hedge ten years ago.

When I say ‘hedge’, think more about a 15-metre line of the weakest-looking bare twigs sticking out of the ground. Frankly it looked pathetic. At that stage it clearly didn’t offer wildlife anything except a good laugh.

But I followed the text book, laid squares of old carpet around their base, gave them the odd bucket of water, and hoped for the best. I even did the really painful thing of snipping my ‘whips’ in half – it seemed so brutal at the time.

By the second spring, my ‘hedge’ was starting to have something of a presence – a froth of green beginning to fill out.

By year four it was difficult to push your way through it.

And since then it has been an absolute joy. Sparrows twitter from deep inside it; Wrens and Robins wend their way inside its spiny heart and Blackbirds flick about its base. In winter, tits dangle in its complex framework. And on sunny summer days it is alive with hoverflies and other insects. This is it this week:

I had presumed it would be hard to manage. After all, not many gardens seem have hedges these days - the stock solution for dividing up our little rectangles seems to be wooden panel fencing.

But it turned out to be really easy. I think it takes about an hour’s work each year, I reckon. I take the shears to it in September and just clip it back, threading the cut stems back into the hedge to make it even thicker. I’d much rather be doing that than creosoting a fence.

So why do so few gardens have hedges these days if it is easy and cheap? Yes, there is that period when it is establishing when it no barrier for dogs or children. And a deciduous hedge offers less privacy than a 6-foot tall solid fence.

But if you can cope with that, then a hedge won’t blow over in a gale, it lasts a lifetime, and it’s better for excluding intruders.

And just think of all those wildlife benefits: shelter, cover, nesting sites, insects, berries. And for Frogs, Toads, Hedgehogs and many other creatures, they can come and go between gardens without encountering impenetrable barriers everywhere.

Check out this month’s Homes for Wildlife e-newsletter for a brilliant offer from Ashridge Nurseries to buy native hedging plants for your own garden, saving you money and raising some funds for RSPB too. Go on, give it a go!