November 2024
Nash, Bucks, 87 metres hawthorn hedge laid with live stakes, including 32 metres laid by my assistants. This hedge is periodically grazed by sheep. Tall and challenging in parts with lots of brambles having not been fIailed for many years. I coppiced a further 19 metres unsuitable for laying at the far end for the customer to plant up the gaps and give it a new start in life. The hedge included one fine oak and a smaller one coming on nicely. A large patch of gorse behind the hedge at one point was an unusual feature. This was once the village recreation field.
View from start of hedge before. The tall plants on the verge in front of the hedge are rosebay willowherb, very attractive in the summer and will bounce back...
...and newly laid with the oak tree standing out nicely. On the far side of the field is a tall unlaid hedge across the road and a lower hedge this side I laid last season for the same customer.
Here's the large oak tree from inside the field before, complete with two pallets at the base...
...and here it is afterwards with the hedge laid and the lowest oak branches limbed up. A new post and wire fence will replace the existing electric fence. The shade and shelter of the oak will remain a favoured spot for the sheep.
View from start of hedge before...
...and work in progress. This section is very tall and tangled with brambles and there is a deep ditch in tight to it...
...view looking towards the start of the hedge. Firewood and excess brush is stacked to the right.
Work underway. The large live stake towards the right hand end...
...is about a third of the way from the left hand side in this image. It's not that easy to make out the hedge with both the excess brush behind and the gorse bushes that were mostly left in situ.
As I got closer to the large oak, the hedge was less tall. This view from the field side...
...is the same section shown here from the road side.
View from end of laid hedge. The dark oak tree is on the other side of the road. Further along a young oak is coming on well and beyond that is the larger oak. Loads of excess brush is piled on the right. A further 11 metres of hedge was both too gappy and the stumps too high to lay and was coppiced so the gaps could be planted up to produce a new hedge in due course.
The end of the hedge from the field side...
...and the same section from the road side. A short live stake about half way along and quite hard to spot secures the end of the hedge as a whole as well as some smaller laid stems to the right.
View from the end of hedge towards the oak trees
Rosehill Farm, Steeple Claydon. 48 metres of predominantly plum with some hawthorn. Laid with live stakes. A fine hedge that was a pleasure to lay.
Start of hedge. The client has already removed a barbed wire fence in front of the hedge along with any stems too far forward to be useful
...work underway
No shortage of material to work with here and it's not tangled up either!
View from start with work well underway
Close-up of start of hedge
Start of hedge
Close-up of a tight group of pleachers
The height and number of stems are yielding a very substantial laid hedge
Before...
...and after.
Looking towards the start of the hedge
Partway through the leaves started taking on their autumn hues
Interested spectators look on from a distance
Finished