Wildlife Hedgerow

[tufftie]

Not sure if Jez mentioned it on here but he's ordered us a wildlife hedgerow (about 200 native trees) 100 hawthorn, 15 wild privet, 10 Sloe, 10 Buckthorn Alder, 5 Purging Buckthorn, 5 Bird Cherry, 10 Wild Cherry, 5 Crab Apple, 2 Elder, 3 Dogwood, 10 Hazel, 5 Guelder Rose, 10 Sweet Briar, 3 Wild Service Tree, 3 Way Faring Tree, 1 Mountain Ash, & 3 Field Maple. Can't wait for them to arrive so that we can start planting! The rest is going to take sometime to complete but the plans Jez has for it are fantastic and we get to have a pond as well as a stream!

[pammosley]

Hi Tufftie, that`s alot of hedge It will look wonderful, lots of work coming up then

[Dogghound]

Fantastic I am involved in HLS scheme work these are the species we recommend to farmers. I have seen several of these species rich hedgerows being planted and the results are great especially for birds. You wont be let down. I always like to visit the site after it has been established and see what is there.

[Jason Green]

Afternoon Naomi,

Wow, what a great project for you both! A lot of work, but work that'll prove to have been very worthwhile. Some great species there, the Wild Service is a very good one in my opinion being as the species in a native sense is now uncommon.

Keep us posted

Take care,

Jason

[bigdave60dog]

Go for it, Put the elders at the ends of the hedge as they tend to poison the other species out. Your plants are mostly lime lovers -Mountain Ash excepted- and some like Wild Service are slow growers and hard to establish.
Growers tend to supply Quickthorn which is a specially selected strain of Midland Hawthorn. these are -as the name suggests -very fast growers. If you get these be careful to nurture the slow growing and weaker species, Don`t let them dry out. Water at the start of a predicted dry spell. You may look a bit daft watering a hedgerow in the rain but a stitch in time saves nine as they say.
The hedge will need to be layed (pleached) after say 5 years depending on how well it establishes etc. If this is not done you will lose some species in favour of others.
Take advice from a local hedge laying expert. They are generally really clued up and have tips passed on from previous generations. Such people are much more help in the long run than some conservationists who have much knowledge but little real experience
In nature a hedge will add one species of tree for every hundred years of it`s life. You are attempting to shortcut this process. With a bit of lick yuo will succeed. Well done.

[tufftie]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

Fantastic I am involved in HLS scheme work these are the species we recommend to farmers. I have seen several of these species rich hedgerows being planted and the results are great especially for birds. You wont be let down. I always like to visit the site after it has been established and see what is there.

What is an HLS scheme?

[tufftie]

Originally Posted by bigdave60dog

Go for it, Put the elders at the ends of the hedge as they tend to poison the other species out. Your plants are mostly lime lovers -Mountain Ash excepted- and some like Wild Service are slow growers and hard to establish.
Growers tend to supply Quickthorn which is a specially selected strain of Midland Hawthorn. these are -as the name suggests -very fast growers. If you get these be careful to nurture the slow growing and weaker species, Don`t let them dry out. Water at the start of a predicted dry spell. You may look a bit daft watering a hedgerow in the rain but a stitch in time saves nine as they say.
The hedge will need to be layed (pleached) after say 5 years depending on how well it establishes etc. If this is not done you will lose some species in favour of others.
Take advice from a local hedge laying expert. They are generally really clued up and have tips passed on from previous generations. Such people are much more help in the long run than some conservationists who have much knowledge but little real experience
In nature a hedge will add one species of tree for every hundred years of it`s life. You are attempting to shortcut this process. With a bit of lick yuo will succeed. Well done.

Thanks for the info Looking forward to the hedgelaying part of it as I've done a fair bit of it with BTCV and where I first lived in Cornwall (though I know Cornish hedging is rather different )

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by tufftie

........ (though I know Cornish hedging is rather different )

They use rocks don't they?
Well done with this hedgerow - you can't have too many trees and shrubs ...

[Jez]

It's actually a hedgerow of 197 trees double layered for most of it's part, sorry to be pernickety but Tufftie forgot to mention the 2 elders and the Rowan won't be included in the hedgerow, their to be grown just as individal trees! They should be arriving anytime now and the soil around here is very soggy atm, but will take bigdave's advice and give them a water when we get a dry spell, and in the mean time I can get an outside tap linked up to a half round ranch post in an ideal location.

Thanks all for the advice and well wishes! We'll post some photo's so you can how it develops and what other wild creatures besides ourselves take a shine to it!

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by tufftie

What is an HLS scheme?

Higher level stewardship. Basically enhancing farmland habitat's such as hedgerows, ponds, wildbird crops etc.