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Author Topic: Hedge laying  (Read 13837 times)

DartmoorLiz

  • Joined Jan 2012
  • Devon
Re: Hedge laying
« Reply #15 on: January 28, 2012, 07:48:51 pm »
You are clever - thanks

Here's the hornbeam hedge which was planted in 2003 ish and then laid 2 years ago.  The photos will come in instalments as there's limits to the file size. 
« Last Edit: January 28, 2012, 07:50:32 pm by DartmoorLiz »
Never ever give up.

DartmoorLiz

  • Joined Jan 2012
  • Devon
Re: Hedge laying
« Reply #16 on: January 28, 2012, 07:52:23 pm »
Here's some close ups of the pleaching and stakes put in to weave the young trees in and out.  Hopefully you can see that the pleach is starting to heal over.
Never ever give up.

DartmoorLiz

  • Joined Jan 2012
  • Devon
Re: Hedge laying
« Reply #17 on: January 28, 2012, 09:18:25 pm »
This is a mostly beach hedge which has been left to grow up for about 30 years.  A bit too big for conventional laying but sufficient material to make a sheep proof barrier at the top of the stone faced bank (or Devon hedge).

Never ever give up.

DartmoorLiz

  • Joined Jan 2012
  • Devon
Re: Hedge laying
« Reply #18 on: January 28, 2012, 09:31:34 pm »
The young hornbeam hedge is about 10 meters long and took about an hour in the dark to lay and about the same next day to clear up.

The old beach hedge on top of the bank, with ground crew doing the clearing, takes about an hour to do 3 meters.  Its a bit more complex than it looks as the other side is onto a road so you need someone in the road stopping cars when trees are coming down so that adds yet another person to the mix.  Clearing up this hedge is taking ages and the trunks are so twisted having grown in a hedge that it's a lot of work to turn them into firewood - we did have a nice fire in the field for November 5th though.

What I'm trying to say is - it's really difficult to work out how much someone will want per meter because each hedge is different.

I've got one more photo of what not to do.

Hope that helps.

Liz
Never ever give up.

DartmoorLiz

  • Joined Jan 2012
  • Devon
Re: Hedge laying
« Reply #19 on: January 28, 2012, 09:42:54 pm »
In this photo which is a first ever attempt which has remained on the farm as motivation to do better.

The pleaches have been done too far up the trunk, leaving gaps underneath.  The problem with this is that over the next 30 years until the next time this hedge is layed, the Devon bank will erode downwards, at the same time, the still living pleach will send shoots upwards, blocking out the light and surpressing undergrowth at the same time. These three factors combine to leave gaps between the lays and the bank into which livestock can crawl and then make runs.  This, in this case, is exacerpated by a very healthy rabbit population which all conspire to make this a barrier which is not sheep proof.  The photo is taken from the road where sheep wander but thankfully so far have not thought to attempt to break through and on the inside, we have secondary fencing keeping the sheep in. 

And another thing - if its needed, the layed trees were not staked down and their ends were left springing up, which was fairly insignificant when the ends were small but they then grew in that position and so now are a long bent stem - still growing, which is good, but ugly as anything. 

We don't get the man with the flail in as when the hedges are allowed to grow up they give a nice straight undamaged stem for pleaching in 30 years time.

Thats all folks

Liz
« Last Edit: January 28, 2012, 09:46:05 pm by DartmoorLiz »
Never ever give up.

Small Farmer

  • Joined Jan 2012
  • Bedfordshire
Re: Hedge laying
« Reply #20 on: January 29, 2012, 09:12:43 am »
Thanks for these.  It's got us all enthusiastic to do ours, though we may wait for the freezing fog to disperse!
Being certain just means you haven't got all the facts

OhLaLa

  • Joined Sep 2010
Re: Hedge laying
« Reply #21 on: January 31, 2012, 11:27:53 am »
To learn a bit about it, I just watched it being done. A wonderful craft. There's a fair bit about it on t'internet too.

 :farmer:

 

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