New year, new (rejuvenated) hedge!

Happy new (ish) year! 2025 has started with a flurry of taking stock of 2024, making plans for 2025, actual stock taking, preparing for the Spring Fair and... hedge laying.

Genny, along with Farmland Bird Aid Network volunteers, is rejuvenating a stretch of hedgerow adjacent to a Farmland Bird Aid Network feeding site on the outskirts of Stonesfield, here in West Oxfordshire. As well as food through the winter, birds need good habitat to nest in and raise their broods. Often, a thick hedge will provide good cover, and the insect population needed to feed the young birds. We did some hedgelaying training a couple of years ago, on the Oxfordshire Way, which resulted in thickening up of the hedges, rejuvenating them and promoting regrowth from the base of the hedge.

Many hedges (like the hedgerow pictured above) become gappy, or are flailed each year. This does not provide such a good habitat for mice, birds and insects. A flailed hedge will remove the new growth, including fruits, berries and nuts - and many plants only produce berries on growth which is two years old. Hedgelaying encourages the trees to put on new growth, becoming thicker and creating better habitat for birds to hide their nests.

Here Genny is removing Clematis vitalba - more commonly known as 'old man's beard', or 'traveller's joy', which can, if not kept in check, become too dense, swamp the other plants, and prevent growth of the structural shrubs and trees. Removal of the old man's beard is done in the winter months after the seedheads have been eaten by goldfinch and other birds but before the spring flowers. 

Once the old man's beard and other material has been cleared, partial cuts are made in in the stems which are then laid at a 45 degree angle to make a pleacher. Similar to when training climbing roses, stems are laid at an angle to encourage shoots to grow vertically, thus thickening up the hedgerow!  

It's cold but rewarding work - especially when the sun shines!

To read more about Genny's work as a trustee and volunteer of The Farmland Bird Aid Network, please read our "Feeding the birds" blog post, or visit The Farmland Bird Aid Network website. 

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