Author Topic: new hedge... (Read 2227 times)

DenisCooper · « **on:** January 03, 2017, 08:16:33 pm »

Hey,

Im planting a new hedge, around 270m of hedging and go 1000 various bare root hedging plants being delivered next week.

I'm going to add a variety of edible fruit and nuts, such as damsons, blackberry, hazelnuts, etc which I've got to order, do you think 100 of these types of bare root shrubs is enough to get a good spread down the 270m span or should i opt for more?

Also, i was thinking of running chicken wire all the along to protect from sheep and horses - is this the best approach?

Thanks
Denis

Fleecewife · « **Reply #1 on:** January 03, 2017, 11:55:33 pm »

Excellent

Include a few mirabels and Scots pine, various wild roses for hips, crab apples too. I think 10% to 15% is fine. Beware of blackberries which can turn a hedge into an impenetrable thicket. We eventually plumped for growing our blackberries in the fruit garden along frames and even then they are hard to control.

For protection, I would go the whole hog with proper sheep mesh. Sheep will climb up fencing on their hind legs and also push through it. They will exert an amazing amount of pressure on the fencing. Chicken wire is very hard to tension adequately and easily squashed down. We have double fenced our hedges with sheep mesh on both sides, plus 2 strained wires above. To that our neighbour added a further top wire of barbed wire and extra tall stobs as his cattle had jumped over and were pulling young plants right out. I hate barbed wire, so we don't have it on our side, but so far it has been effective at stopping his cattle even reaching over. Leave enough space between the double fences to get in there and tend your hedge.

Backinwellies · « **Reply #2 on:** January 04, 2017, 07:41:27 am »

Stock fencing for sheep. Strand of barb for cattle. I don't know much about horses but guess it might need elec tape?

big soft moose · « **Reply #3 on:** January 12, 2017, 04:26:05 pm »

What species are in your general hedging ? I tend to include hazel and blackthorn in the mix anyway (along with hawthorn) which takes care of hazelnuts and sloes.

I think if i was trying to include a decent amount of fruit I'd replace all the standard trees (every ten m or so) with a fruit or nut tree... to much hilarity i got the book 'how to grow your own nuts' this xmas which has some good info on varieties (its expensive but you might get it from your local library).

Fencing wise I agree that strained mesh with two strands of barb is the way to go. Our local contractors charge £6/m for this (softwood posts at 5m spacing) or of course you can do it yourself