[Badger]

Hello Everybody, we are seeking advice please. We have just purchased some bare root wild privet whips. We are going to weave them into our hawthorn hedge to try and make it more chicken proof. The hawthorn hedge though 6ft high is mostly bare from the ground till about the first 2 to 3 ft. We have searched the internet, but cannot find much definitive information. Some other varieties of whips, people talk of reducing the height by up to 50% as soon as you are sure they have taken (to encourage side shoots rather than height I guess). Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks
Badger

[Fleecewife]

Have you thought of laying your hawthorn hedge?  That is the traditional way of filling in those gaps at the bottom and if you get it thick enough it will keep poultry in and hopefully foxes out, but it takes only one gap and they are through.  We layed a 50m stretch of our hedge and although it looks as if you have killed it when the laying is first done, it soon produces loads of vertical new growth.  We haven't done any more as my OH got RSI (hedge layers elbow  ) from chopping at the stems 
For a totally hen proof barrier you will have to put up chicken wire alongside the hedge.
New whips planted under an established 6' hedge might struggle to grow.

[Badger]

Hi, and thanks for the reply. Yes hedge laying would be the ideal answer. Only trouble is we live next door to the neighbour from hell, and we do not want to have visual contact with them for the next couple of years while the hedge re-establishes. I also suspect you are right in that it will be difficult to get the new whips to grow into the existing hedge. Anyway it has only cost a few pounds to try the experiment. I wonder if there is some other plant,shrub whatever that might be a quick fix ?.

Badger

[Hermit]

How about rosa rugosa.Makes a really good thorny barrier and spreads quickly. You can use the rose hips as well if the chooks dont eat them first. Is not wild privet poisonous or is that just to humans?

[Old Shep]

Just a word of warning - if you keep any grazing animals Wild privet is extremely poisonous. I nearly lost 2 goats who ate some.

[Badger]

Thank you Hermit & Shep for your replies. We like the Rose Rugosa suggestion, I wonder if that would grow into an existing hedge easier thgan the wild privet. So far no advice on how and when to prune the privet.

Badger

[Hermit]

Rosa Rugosa loves a confined spot, it will go mad if you let it. Grazing nearby or mowing will get all those 'out of line' shoots that come up. R.R. rose hips are the best fro making jams and syrups with, packed with vitamin C. Ours are covered in Waxwings in the Autumn, birds love them.

[Fleecewife]

Rosa Rugosa will also take over a hedge of other species so is best on its own.  We have a stretch which is lovely, but not poultry proof.

[Plantoid]

i have some Rosa rosa seeds collected last year in Lichtenstien by me .
Now our garden is completed we no longer have the need for them . if you want them PM me your name & address.
 The plants stood about five feet six high and had thorns like desperate Dan's beard from the  floor to flowers.
They were planted in a two foot wide band one every five or six inches apart.

Re
The privet .. yes it makes a good hedge  and is ever green , it can grow to 20 foot tall and would encroach on your neighbours property making it difficult for you to cut but easy for them to complain to the courts about you not being a social neighbour.
In the UK in England & Wales I do believe there is now enacted legislation about heights of hedges especially leylandi  to be no more than  three metres high and certain contitions about the hedge manintnence .