Restoring A Hedge

 With the oak tree down it has left a rather large gap, and although it was set back form the hedge by a good 14ft it feels very empty down there now. 

But it has let a good amount of light into the old hedge that runs in parallel to it. It's also made me realise how much this hedge needs some work, especially this first section. It's very gappy, with the trees that are left looking very little like a hedge. 

Want to seize the bull by the horns I decided to keep on working with the wood on our land and lay a bit of this hedge. 

Laying 42m Of Hedge - That I Planted 9 Years Ago!

 The week before last I decided to finally lay the hedge I'd been thinking about for the last few years.

What's really good about laying this hedge is I planted it myself 9 years ago (read the blog post here). 

Fixing a Gap In A Hedge - Part Two - Dead Hedge & Planting Up Gaps

Please excuse the click-bait thumbnail for the video! Although it does show the dead hedge I weaved to finish my hedge repair. 

I was really pleased with how this hedge turned out, I've even had a few compliments from people who have seen it from the road!  

Doing a hedge is pretty easy once you get going, easy as in it's fairly easy to keep moving forward with it. But it is hard graft - some of the hardest I've done. Chainsaw helmet, chainsaw trousers, heating your whole body up. Thick gloves and long sleeves, fighting big branches of the hedge, unhooking each upright from each other, pulling them down, welding an axe and chainsaw all day. It feels great. I've been doing it again today and my whole body aches, but I know I'll sleep well tonight!

I've got about another 13m to do tomorrow (today by the time you read this) and I'm excited to get it done! No grant money, no one paying me, but it seems the right thing to do to steward the land in this way. 

Anyone else still got some hedge laying to do this year?

Fixing a Gap In A Hedge - Part One - Basic Hedge Laying

 So, we've had a very stressful week and I've not been on the smallholding much, but I put this video together the beginning of the week before and I I thought I'd still share it with you all. 

Down by the duck pen there is a huge gap in one of the hedges. It bothers me every time I walk past it. After spending a few days hedging laying the week before I thought I'd tackle it. In doing so it should give me (some of) the materials for my larger stretch of hedge to be laid later. 

Learning Hedge Laying

 Last week I had a couple of perfect winter days. 

I do some work for a friend on a casual basis as he has a number of properties and they all need things doing to them on occasion (sash cords, floors, kitchens, etc), and he has a man who does much of the outside maintenance work on the estate. 

His name is Steve and he works on lots of farms and small holdings locally, he does some great work and one that always stands out is his hedge laying. I always chat to him if we're working on the estate at the same time, he's a smallholder as well so we share similar interests.