[Fleecewife]

I seem to remember reading that elder was poisonous to livestock.  That said, my Badger Face will scoff it if they have the chance while I'm moving them through the wood.  We once made hedgerow jam using just that - hawthorn, rosehips, rowan, blackberry, elder.  Best jam ever - but remove the seeds from wild rosehips - they don't soften and it's like eating shrapnel!

And crab apples - hedgerow jam, hedgerow jelly, summer garden jam, just add whatever you can find 


I'm sure I mentioned it earlier - balm of gilead, a poplar, has the most glorious, sweet scent from now right through to the autumn.  It wafts on the air across your land, and seems to come from the outer bits of the leaf buds.

[pharnorth]

Walnut.  I had a lovely time foraging for Walnuts in Crete a year or two back. There is a place in Kent that sells walnut trees and they do grow well over here. 

[SallyintNorth]

To focus on your intended visitors rather than livestock for a moment, elder has the bonus of lovely scent and human edible high vit c berries, plus provides opportunity to collect flowers to make delicious cordial.

But leave some flowers to turn to fruit - the elderberry makes the second best hedgerow wine .

Wot no glass of wine emotiwotsit?

[pgkevet]

Also had several thousand pounds of private surgery to remove backthorn causing a lump in my elbow.

Agree Nuts, nuts https://www.agroforestry.co.uk/product-category/plants/nuts/
Cheaper still to just source fallen chestnuts/walnuts etc from friends and plant your own seed for the common varieties.
My opinon is that all farms shoud have fruit and nut trees in hedgrows - daft that we import what can easily be grown with little effort

[Buttermilk]

I have a goodly amount of hazlenuts in my hedges but have never yet got a crop of nuts picked.  The squirrels get there before me every year.

[SallyintNorth]

I have a goodly amount of hazlenuts in my hedges but have never yet got a crop of nuts picked.  The squirrels get there before me every year.

One of our new members asked me when was the right time to harvest the hazelnuts here.  "Two days before the squirrels take them", we replied . The squirrels take them just before they're fully ripe, little tinkers

[Marches Farmer]

Squirrels take walnuts early too.  The only year we got a crop was the one when we sorted 17 squirrels over the summer.  Walnuts also succumb to a very unsightly rust-type disease on the leaves in damp weather.  I agree about Balm of Gilead - we have one and its scent spreads over the side of the valley when the wind's in the right direction.

[pgkevet]

This is the first year I've had a  crop of hazelnuts.. all from one small section of hedge and two other bushes all of which have far larger nuts than the common wild stuff around here. It'll be interesting to see if the same happens again next year now that I've found/identified these particular trees amongst the odd mile of hedges I have. Then again fewer squirrels about this year.
I'm not a believer in 'native species only'.. that tends to depend where in history you pick your viewpoint. I go with the 'source safe stock' and plant as big a  variety of fruits and nuts as you can grow; monkey puzzles, figs, pecans, hickory nuts, highbush blueberries.. whatever. The link to agroforestry gives huge scope. Even the apple isn't native.

[Fleecewife]

Well obviously if you're going back to the retreat of the last glaciers, then nothing in Britain is native - not flora nor fauna.  By 'native species' most of us mean the varieties you would see on any woodland or hedgerow walk, which should grow well under local conditions.  There's no point keeping double-double pink cherry trees if you want to feed wildlife on pollen, nectar and fruit.  Some recent research has shown that flying insects prefer native species to garden species of flowers - no clue as to why but it clearly matters.
I'm with you though on having some modern cultivars of trees and shrubs in our hedgerows, especially hazelnuts - even when ours appear to be full and plump coming up to harvest, there's never anything harvestable inside.  I wouldn't mind squirrels getting them, as to me wildlife is wildlife and we shouldn't have favourites, if the nuts would only grow properly.  So maybe I'll get a good cultivar for a crop.  I love the idea of a monkey puzzle tree - there are a few in our area so we know they can be grown here.  What are the seeds like to eat?

[Perris]

what is this Balm of Gilead? What wikipedia throws up (Commiphora gileadensis, the Arabian balsam tree) suggests something that wouldn't obviously grow well in the UK, or something less obviously unsuitable but nevertheless still might struggle here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistacia_lentiscus) but says several different plants have gone under the same name, so maybe you mean something else, with a different latin name?

[Fleecewife]

http://www.hedging.co.uk/acatalog/product_10268.html

[pgkevet]

........
I'm with you though on having some modern cultivars of trees and shrubs in our hedgerows, especially hazelnuts - even when ours appear to be full and plump coming up to harvest, there's never anything harvestable inside.  I wouldn't mind squirrels getting them, as to me wildlife is wildlife and we shouldn't have favourites, if the nuts would only grow properly.  So maybe I'll get a good cultivar for a crop.  I love the idea of a monkey puzzle tree - there are a few in our area so we know they can be grown here.  What are the seeds like to eat?

Another 10-15 years and I'll have enough puzzle seeds to try eating them :-)
As to hazel cultivars.. try sowing some bought nuts this xmas but I think some are treated 'cos only the chestnuts germinated the year I put a mixed lot in (no I didn't bother with the brazils <g>)
Anyone tried/know if hazel cuttings will take??? The big nuts I found are just in the general hedgerow and I'd like more (though I could sow some)

edit - remember that puzzles are single sex trees.

[Marches Farmer]

There are a number of hazel cultivars available from specialist nurseries.  Monkey Puzzle pine nuts don't appear anything like the sort you get in the supermarket - rather thin and papery if the one near us is anything to go by.

[Perris]

http://www.hedging.co.uk/acatalog/product_10268.html

thanks Fleecewife!  found a photo on google images and turns out I have that in a border. Now I know what it's called, but can't say I've noticed any scent from it though. Our site is rather exposed so perhaps it gets dispersed too quickly.