Last winter we layed one of the car park hedges which was a great success and has already put on plenty of new healthy growth and so with the leaves largely off the trees we set about phase two...
This hedge of largely Hawthorn and Sloe with a few scraggly wild Privet had required a lot of preparation work before hand and Jamie, Phil, Bertha, the work party and I had spent several days cutting back the bramble and reed and removing all the large Sloe sucker clump at the Centre end to reveal the original line and shape, ready for my Dad and his team of hedgelayers to get to work yesterday.
The whole hedge just before we started...
Preparing the way by removing the old car park posts and marking out the four cants that the team would be working on in their pairs
Clearing out the remaining high bramble and wayward side branches and making the first pleaching cuts
Starting to take shape...
A wonderfully pleached hawthorn to allow the tree to be bent into the new hedge structure
It looks a little sad at this stage but every pleached tree has it place and the team are deciding how to tackle a slightly skew Hawthorn
Not far to go before the staking and binding can take place...
The whole team on stake duty - 18 inches apart (about elbow to fingertip) - none knocked in yet
After hammering in the stakes, the hazel binders are woven in and out to add strength and tamped down into place and any scraggly bits sticking out sidewise are then snipped off.
And after a final neat trimming of the stake tops to a fists width above the binders the job is done for the day.
The two Crab Apples have been left as standards in the hedge although the bottom right obvious pleach is part of that Crab and should make the hedge look lovely come the spring. To the right of this picture there are another 28 yards of hedge to lay and I am already looking forward to helping my Dad and his team next Friday too.
The difference that this has already made to the feel for the car park is amazing and this rejuvenation will help create a healthier, thicker and more wildlife rich hedge as well as showcasing this vitally important but sadly neglected country skill.
Howard Vaughan, Information Officer