Restoring a Hedge Part 2 - Replanting

 So I manged to do a bit more to the hedge I'm restoring last week. I got in the trees I ordered to fill up the gaps. 

I planted a mix of hawthorn and hazel, but also added in a fruit tree in a light patch that we had.

It's not much, but another 60 trees added to our part of Herefordshire and another variety of fruit added to what we're already growing, as I added in a Mirabelle De Nancy in the lighter patch of the hedge. 

I may regret planting so many fruit trees in the hedges in future years, as it'll make laying hedges harder, but not for a long while yet. 

Patching Hedging In The Rain

In the corner of the bottom field there's what looks like an old gateway that's been fenced over.

 It can never really be used as a gateway again as there is now a telegraph pole and straining wire in the way.

 I decided that with the left over plants from the top hedge, to patch over this gateway and make it so that people couldn't climb over if they wanted to.

26 hawthorn plants later, along with some bamboo and tree guards and the jobs done - I got soaked in the process!
I'm not sure how well these plants will do as they're shaded by the big oak tree above them. The rest of the hedge was planted a long time after the oak and they've grown OK so hopefully these young plants will survive.
Anyone else been patching they're hedges lately?

Planting A Hedge - Part Three - Planting

Over the Christmas break I managed to get our new hedge planted. This was to be 42m of hawthorn with a few home grafted cider apple trees spaced amongst it.

Where the hedge is to grow. The "mole hills" are where I planted the cider trees

 The first thing I did was to make sure that we had all the posts in for the fence that would go either side of it (I'll do a how-to fencing post later in the month). Having these in first would mean than no plants would get damaged as we go about bashing the posts in.

I then planted the cider trees in the middle spaced at about 5m.

The two lines marking where the hawthorn will be planted and the bunches of trees laid out to give an idea of spacing

I then spaced out the 225 hawthorn plants evenly, it worked out at about 5-6 per meter. I laid a bundle of 6 plants every meter and that way as I worked down the hedge I knew I was planting at the right spacing.

Slowly getting there

 I planted in sections, planting around 5 meters then going back and adding bamboo canes to each plant and then adding the rabbit collar over the top of them both. By doing it in sections I could see that the spacing was right and it broke up the monotony of the job.

Seems like a long way!

Planting was simply done. A spade pushed into the ground and pushed forward

A hawthorn plant slipped in

Using my foot to push the earth back around it. Now repeat 225 times!

 It took me most of the day to plant it and although it's not nice work (standing up was a treat!) I got a real sense of satisfaction when it was finished.

The finished hedge - I'll look forward to seeing how it grows

I've still got to add two more apple trees and an oak tree on the far left before it's finished and I've also kept some hawthorn back to plant in a nursery bed to replace any plants that die over the next 12 months.

My main concern is that it's in a really wet part of the field so some of the roots might drown but hopefully it will be alright.

Anyone else planted a hedge from scratch? If so how did it go and how long before it really looked like a hedge?

Planting A Hedge - Part Two - The Raw Materials

I'm planning to get my hedge planted when I'm off work over Christmas, so I thought it was best to order all the items I need well in advance

Tree guards

 This week I bulk brought 250 spiral tree guards with 3ft bamboo canes as well as 225 hawthorn plants that I heeled into the garden, ready for when I want them. I've also ear marked a few home grafted cider apple trees to plant in the hedge at intervals.

225 hawthorn plants ready when I want them!

I do need to get some pig netting, staples and fence posts to do the whole thing properly and prevent people (or dogs) getting through until it grows. Hopefully I'll be able to borrow either my father or my brother for a day to help me put all the fence posts in and then maybe next year we can get some stock!

Holly Seedlings

I want to put some holly in my hedge when I plant it.

It's good at stopping people climbing it, gives some evergreen cover, good berries for the birds and can be used for Christmas decoration.

 But after seeing the price of it per plant I decided I better try to find my own source!

 The neighbours who I cut the tree up for (yesterdays post) have a huge old mansion that has a 4 acre garden with beautiful trees and vistas. So I asked if they had many seedlings they didn't want/need. They did, loads of them!

 After being walked round and told I could help myself I went back grabbed a tub and a spade and got digging.

I managed to get 24 in half an hour, but the roots on them aren't that amazing so I decided to plant them up in a little nursery bed in the garden and see if they grow more roots over the winter before going into the hedge.

Hopefully this should help the cost of the hedge a little bit and also give a bit of winter cover.

What other seedlings do you think I should be going after for my hedge?

Planting A Hedge - Part 1 Planning It Out

I guess I am someone that likes boundaries, I like my garden to have a fence and my fields to be separated up.

The footpath that runs across the top of our land wasn't a big issue for me, but I always knew I wanted to separate it in the first field as this is where our children are likely to play and the majority of our "free range" (or escaped) animals are likely to be. Also as this is the area that contains our sheds and shipping container I'd like it to be a little more private, although the footpath isn't heavily trafficked, everyone like to have a look at whats going on.

An ignored piece of advice

 My simple plan is to plant a hedge along this footpath to give a clear boundary. This will be fenced both sides (possibly), with a double gate right at the start (but that might have solid fronting to it and be 6ft high to protect my stuff).
I've decided to give a 12ft corridor down the path as this give me good access with a tractor to the next field and also allows it to be mechanically cut if I want it to be in the future, I know I'm loosing grazing space but the trade off for privacy is worth it (I can still run animals up their to graze it if I want anyway).
The trouble is, what hedging to plant? I've been reading the relative merits of them all, evergreen, beech, yew, native, etc. But I've decide that I'll plant a mainly Hawthorne hedge, with holly and any other native hedging plants I can find seeded down either here or at Mum and Dads.
I'm going for mainly Hawthorne as the total run of it is 42m so that will mean around 250 plants and as I'm not going through any grant schemes this way is lightest on my pocket while still giving me the results I want.

Don't know if you can see the pegs and the blue bit of string to mark the hedge or not. I've marked it a metre wide

The far end of the hedge will also have cider and crab apple trees planted every so often to make productive use of this space but not with a fruit that's too desirable to walkers!
Anyone else planted any hedging and have any tips? I'll plant it as a double row and aim for 6-7 plants a metre.

Sloes

There's not much in the way of free fruit that our little smallholding had in place when we moved here, but the one thing there is an abundance of this year is sloes!

 It's bumper year and they're hanging off the hedges like grapes. My little sister and her boyfriend came round the other day (mainly to see the new baby - not me) and I suggested we went and picked some so they could make sloe gin.

 It didn't take long to pick them, in fact I think we picked a tub full without moving more than 5ft!

I've made plenty of sloe gin and other liquors in the past but I'm not going to bother this year - we're just not very big drinkers any more (I'm not sure we ever were) so it seems daft to make something just for the sake of it (although it does make a good present).
Has anyone else got any other ideas with what to do with sloes? I made some sloe and apple jam a few years ago and that was terrible, so any ideas better than that one please!