The Mixed Hedge Year 2

The hedge that we planted last March is looking really good!

Looking over the whole hedge I think out of the 500 or so trees we planted that only about 3 have died! A result I'm really pleased with. 

The 14 damson, plum and bullace trees we planted are also growing strongly. Most have little fruitlets on already, although I'm not sure how many will make it to my belly! 

I'm looking forward to watching this grow over the years. Be a while until I have to lay it though. 

Hedges Patched

 Good fences make good neighbours and all that. I decided that as I had a few spare plants left over it was worth just patching up the old hedge that divides between us and farm next door. 

Mainly hawthorn and I'll be honest and say I'm not sure how they'll be do being so shaded under the other trees. 

Hopefully enough will take that can be laid in a decade or so to help strengthen the hedge and fence line. A few hours well spent hopefully and a few more trees in the ground on our little smallholding! 

Over 500 Trees Planted!

I'm so pleased with the last week - we have a new fence and hedge in! Woop! 

We did this years ago with the first field nearest the house, to separate off the footpath from the field and make things more private. We kept thinking about doing this with the second field as well, but it was during lockdown and seeing how few people kept their dogs on leads and could control them that made us decide that this was the right thing to do. 

Buds Are Breaking

Everything seems really far ahead this year - except me!

I've hardly started in the garden and I'm already about two weeks behind!

On the bright side my hawthorn hedge seems to be coming to life. All the buds are breaking on these trees that little bit earlier due to their "mini greenhouse" rabbit guards.

Is everyone else already playing catch up with the season or is it just me? I plan to plant a lot of seeds over the next week or so!

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?