It was just over a year ago in December 2016 that a group of us had a hedge planting day in Pop’s Wood. The hedge was a mixture of native hedge plants made up of hazel, hawthorn and field maple. The plants came as bare rooted spindly single stems and looked very vulnerable once in the ground. See the very first Tim Burr blog in March last year earlier blog dated.
During the year I have lost count of the number of times that I have reinserted the stakes and replaced the plastic protection tubes. I don’t quite understand the mechanism that either the deer or badgers use to disturb the covers but they are incredibly effective. As the picture below shows the plants spend most of their time uncovered and exposed to the ravages of whatever passes by.
This week I had a closer look at the plants on a short section near the fenced off nursery cage and was very pleasantly surprised to note that the vast majority of the plants have survived and are showing signs of life ie budding. In the 15 yard stretch there were originally 55 plants put in and 50 have survived. When the saplings were put in they were each cut back to about half their original height, this was intended to encourage them to branch out and so thicken up.
Looking down the tubes that had remained upright, each one was packed with dead leaves from last seasons growth. I wondered whether this was beneficial or detrimental. Did the leaves act as an insulator and protect the new buds from the worst of the frost, or did they simply block out the light and prevent the air from circulating and so run the risk of rot? I decided that the latter was a bigger risk, that coupled with the fact that if the tubes kept getting knocked over the plants were not going to have a chance to grow upwards and actually form a hedge. So for a short section I have removed the covers and stakes and left the plants to fight it out with what ever comes along. Maybe a bit risky but lets see what happens.
The photograph above shows the result of the initial cutting back of the sapling. There is clear evidence of the several branches being formed immediately below the cut and those branches themselves forking out. Who knows it the survive then they might well be a lovely bushy hedge in the years to come.
More next time……..
Tim Burr 