Emily Hartley
Why a native hedge earns its place
A good hedge does three jobs at once. It slows the wind across your plot, it gives insects, birds and small mammals somewhere to feed and shelter through the year, and it makes a boundary that looks as though it belongs in the landscape. A mixed native hedge — rather than a single row of leylandii or laurel — repays the extra planning because every species in the mix flowers, fruits or seeds at a slightly different moment. Something is always of use to something.
Hedges are also the cheapest way to plant a serious amount of habitat. Bare-root whips bought in winter cost a fraction of container-grown shrubs, establish fast in our climate, and need no feeding once they are away. A thirty-metre hedge of three or four native species will do more for wildlife than almost anything else you could put on the same strip of ground, and it will still be there, thicker and more tangled, in fifty years.
The backbone three: hawthorn, blackthorn and hazel
If you plant only three species, plant these. They are all British natives, all tolerant of a wide range of soils, and between them they cover the whole calendar.
- Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) — the classic quickthorn of our field boundaries. Thorny, dense and extremely hard-wearing, it carries creamy May blossom that feeds early bees and hoverflies, then haws in autumn for redwings and fieldfares. It supports a remarkable range of moth caterpillars and makes a safe, prickly nesting site for dunnocks, blackbirds and yellowhammers.
- Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) — the first to flower, often before the end of March, when little else is open for insects. Its sloes are food for thrushes and, of course, for sloe gin. It suckers readily, which helps fill a hedge, but keep it away from the vegetable patch. It is the caterpillar food plant of the brown hairstreak butterfly, now scarce and worth encouraging.
- Hazel (Corylus avellana) — lambs' tail catkins in January and February, nuts in September. Hazel gives the hedge its upright structure and responds beautifully to coppicing. The nuts are taken by wood mice, squirrels and nuthatches; dormice, where you have them, use hazel heavily.
Aim for roughly sixty to seventy per cent hawthorn, twenty per cent blackthorn and the remainder hazel. If you have room for more, add field maple, dog rose, guelder rose, wild crab apple or spindle — each brings its own berries and its own insects, and the variety of height and texture makes a far better wildlife corridor than a uniform row.
Choosing the site and preparing the ground
Most natives are happiest in full sun or light shade, on ground that drains but does not dry out completely. Waterlogged corners will kill hawthorn and hazel, so avoid hollows that stand wet through winter.
Prepare a strip at least a metre wide, ideally a season ahead. Grass and perennial weeds such as couch and nettle will out-compete young whips, so spray off or dig the strip the previous summer and keep it clear. Mark out a double staggered row: rows about 40 centimetres apart, with plants 30 to 45 centimetres apart within the row and offset between the two. This spacing looks impossibly tight on planting day and is entirely correct — a dense hedge is a hedge that shades its own roots and keeps the weeds down.
Planting bare-root whips
Plant between November and March, whenever the ground is neither frozen nor sodden. Bare-root whips of 60 to 90 centimetres are ideal. Keep the roots damp from the moment they arrive; if you cannot plant within a day or two, heel them into a spare patch of soil in a shallow trench.
- Plant to the same depth as the nursery mark on the stem — no deeper. A slit with a spade is often quicker and kinder than a hole, provided you firm the soil back around the roots properly.
- Spread the roots out rather than bundling them into a ball.
- Firm with the heel, then check the plant does not rock.
- Fit a spiral guard against rabbits, and a taller mesh sleeve if deer are about. Rabbits will destroy an unguarded hedge in a fortnight.
- Mulch with well-rotted manure or bark, five to seven centimetres deep, pulled back from the stems so it does not rot them.
- Water in, even in February.
Caring for the hedge in its first summers
The first two growing seasons decide whether you have a hedge or a row of sticks. Water young plants thoroughly in dry spells — around ten litres each, once a week — and keep a metre either side clear of grass. A hoe, a strimmer on its highest setting or a sheet mulch will all do the job, but do not let it slide. Replace any failures the following winter while the ground is open.
Do not cut the leading shoots during these early years. You want height first; density can be built later. A light trim of the sides in the second winter is plenty.
Trimming, laying and the long view
Once established, cut the hedge to a slight A-shape — wider at the base than the top. This lets light reach the bottom and stops the familiar bare-legged look of a flailed hedge. Trim after the nesting season, either in late winter before birds begin again or in early autumn once the berries have gone. Avoid cutting between March and August, when nests are active; if your hedges fall under an agri-environment scheme, that restriction is a legal requirement.
On a longer rotation, consider laying the hedge every ten to fifteen years rather than flailing it to death. Laying rejuvenates old stems, thickens the base and creates the sort of dense, weatherproof structure that shelters nesting birds and small mammals through hard frosts. Between cuts, leave the odd bramble or patch of ivy, and let a strip of rough grass grow along the base. Those untidy margins are where the hedge earns its keep.
