Hedge Tree Fence Posts? The 135 Top Answers

Marion1960

Posted on 03/24/2018 07:50 (#6661833)

Topic: fence post, longevity

Are locust stakes as durable as hedge stakes? I’m in Northern Illinois.

I used to take out old hedge posts that were over 100 years old.

Your fencepost stories?

M

If you are planning to build a fence or other structure, you need to know how long a treated 4×4 can last in the ground.

This will help you determine if you need to reinforce the 4×4 to make it last longer.

Proper reinforcement can ensure the structure lasts for years.

Here we will look at how long a treated 4×4 will last in the ground and other factors that can affect its lifespan.

How long does a treated 4×4 last in the ground? (Explained)

A treated 4×4 will last 20 to 25 years in the ground if soil and climate conditions are favorable.

That number could increase to 40 to 75 years if you install the treated 4×4 in a cement ring instead of in the ground.

There are a few factors that affect how long the 4×4 can last in the ground.

What factors cause a treated 4×4 to deteriorate faster?

Knowing what factors can cause a treated 4×4 to deteriorate faster can help you avoid them.

So you can let your 4×4 last even longer.

Here are the factors that can cause treated SUVs to deteriorate faster.

1st floor

One of the biggest factors in wood deterioration is the soil.

If the soil already contains a lot of moisture, it will take less time for mold and fungus to grow on it.

Because the conditions are already ideal for mold and fungus growth.

Treated wood will also fall victim to fungal attack over time.

If the soil is acidic, it can also degrade the 4×4.

Acidic soil can eat away at the pesticides on the surface of the treated wood.

Once the pesticides are gone, the insects and fungi can start eating the wood.

Before you put your treated 4×4 in the ground, you should first check the acidity of that soil.

It may not be an ideal place for something like wood.

You might want to consider other materials to form your posts instead.

If the ground is wet, you should check whether the area is flooded.

This can pose several risks in and of itself.

If the soil is just damp due to the climate, you’ll want to make sure your treated 4×4 is the right type of treated wood.

It may be a better option to use a treated 4×4 that is designed for sea conditions instead.

2. Moisture

One factor that can affect soil moisture is moisture.

It can also affect the treated 4×4.

People living in high humidity climates will see their treated 4×4 vehicles deteriorate more quickly than those living in non-humid climates.

Humidity measures the concentration of water vapor in the air.

When an area has high humidity, it means that there is a high concentration of water vapor.

This is not good for wood.

Even treated wood can succumb to water if there is a lot of it.

In climates with high humidity, treated wood is constantly exposed to moisture.

This moisture will wear down the pesticides and sealers that protect the wood from the water.

When it wears out, there is nothing left to protect the wood from moisture.

If you live in a high humidity climate, you may want to use a material other than wood.

3. termites

Most treated SUVs contain pesticides that repel termites.

However, not all treatments use pressure.

They only use a topical treatment.

The problem with this is that topical treatment doesn’t last as long as pressure treatment.

Once it subsides, termites can start feeding and burrowing into the wood.

Once that happens, it shortens the life of the treated 4×4.

It is important to know what kind of treatment your 4×4 has received.

It can inform you whether or not you need to continue using topical treatments.

4. With a cement ring

When burying your treated 4×4 in the ground you have two options.

You can either bury the wood directly into the ground or place it in a cement ring.

If you bury it in a cement ring, it will last longer.

That’s because treated 4x4s that are buried in the ground are subject to insect and water degradation.

The ground, especially on the surface, is beginning to erode the 4×4.

The cement ring protects him.

It keeps bugs from accessing it easily.

Water dries faster on cement than in soil.

This can prevent water from pooling around the 4×4 and wearing away the protective coating on it.

If you want your treated 4×4 to last as long as possible, you will need to install it in a cement ring in the ground.

Finally, cement rings add further stability to the 4×4.

Over time, the weight of the SUV can cause it to tilt in the ground.

This is especially true when the soil is damp.

It weakens around the 4×4 and makes it lean.

Once the post begins to tilt, it disrupts the forces holding the rest of the structure together.

The other 4x4s may also start leaning.

The cement ring prevents this by holding the 4×4 in place.

It will not lean and the structure will remain solid.

5. Type of wood

A final factor affecting the lifespan of treated SUVs is the wood species of the SUV.

There are two different types of wood.

Hardwood is the sturdier type of wood, but more expensive and rare.

Softwood is more affordable and widely available, but it’s not as strong as hardwood.

Sapwood, in particular, is a softwood that is commonly used for 4×4 construction.

Heartwood is a hardwood, which is a more expensive option.

If you have the budget, try to find treated 4x4s made out of red cedar or black locust.

Both types of wood are hard and more resistant to water and insects.

Using a softwood 4×4 automatically starts with a shorter lifespan than if you had opted for a hardwood.

If you want the treated 4×4 to last, you need to invest in quality materials from the start.

What is treated wood?

Treated wood refers to wood that has undergone treatment with pesticides and other chemicals to make it last longer.

There are two main types of treated wood.

The first is topically treated wood.

This type of wood treatment uses pesticides and other topical agents to spray the surface of the wood.

It is the cheaper option when it comes to treated wood.

The problem with topically treated wood is that it wears out quickly.

You must continue to spray the wood to protect it from bugs, moisture, and other types of damage.

The second type of treated wood is pressure treated wood.

In this case, professionals place the wood in a pressure chamber.

The chamber sucks moisture out of the wood.

It then violently applies pesticides and other chemicals to the wood.

The sheer amount of force and pressure allows the chemicals to penetrate the wood.

While it doesn’t reach the core of the wood, it goes deep enough to provide lasting protection.

The best type of treated wood is one that uses both of these treatments.

Manufacturers treat wood to protect it from certain threats.

These threats include:

marine organisms

Fire

decompose mushrooms

termites

structural degradation

Here you will learn how each threat can damage wood and how the treatment process is used to protect it.

1. Marine Organisms

Marine organisms pose a threat to wood as they eat the wood.

Algae and other marine organisms cling to the wood and begin to eat it.

They are similar to rot fungi, but they are water based.

There is also the water itself, which poses a threat to the wood when submerged in it.

Even wood that is close to water, such as A bridge, for example, undergoes treatment to ensure it is protected from water erosion.

To treat wood for water applications, the wood is first vacuumed to remove moisture.

Then it goes into a pressure chamber.

Pesticides intended to kill and repel aquatic organisms are injected into the wood.

Certain chemicals that help prevent water erosion are also pushed into the wood.

After the treatment is finished, the wood goes to a drying area.

Treatment drips off until dry.

The wood is then ready for installation.

When introduced into the water, it will repel or kill marine organisms around it.

The type of wood structures that use this particular type of treatment process are docks, bridges and other water-based structures.

2. Fire

With wildfires on the rise, many homeowners are looking to 4x4s and other fireproof wood species.

Manufacturers can treat wood to make it more resistant to fire.

For this purpose, the wood is subjected to a similar treatment as the water-protected wood.

It’s in a pressure chamber that has specific chemicals exploding and seeping into it.

These chemicals make the wood fire retardant.

It works by releasing water vapor and a non-flammable gas when fire touches the wood.

The result is Char.

The char forms on the surface of the wood and prevents the fire from burning deeper into the wood.

It prevents the wood from burning with fire.

This method is useful when constructing houses and buildings.

It can be especially life-altering for areas prone to dangerous bushfires or wildfires.

The treated wood lasts much longer than untreated wood.

3. Rot fungi

There are two main threats to wood when it comes to rot fungi.

The first is wet rot.

Wet rot requires a moisture content of 50% or more.

It also needs oxygen.

When both of these factors are present, the fungus can begin to eat away at the wood.

A good aspect of wet rot is that it is localized.

When the rot occurs, it happens slowly and in only one area.

It gives the individual time to stop the rot and prevent its spread.

This is not the case with the second threat.

Dry rot is the second threat posed by rot fungi.

It can occur when the moisture content is as low as 20-30%.

It is more dangerous because it can spread quickly.

Stopping its spread is more difficult than wet rot, especially since it doesn’t require much moisture to even spread.

Treated wood protects the wood from both types of rot.

The wood is treated in a pressure chamber.

Pesticides meant to kill fungus seep into the wood.

The wood also goes through a vacuum process to remove moisture from the interior.

This can make it difficult for the fungus to find the right amount of moisture it needs to spread.

For rot fungi, topical treatment is often used in addition to pressure treatment.

It also protects the wood from rot fungi.

If you plan to use your 4×4 for a fence or other outdoor structure, consider using one that is treated against rot fungi.

It’s also a good idea to spray topical treatments onto the 4x4s every year.

4. termites

Another serious threat to wood are insects.

Termites and carpenter ants eat wood.

They leave the wood hollow and weak.

Using treated wood can maintain the structural integrity of your buildings.

To treat wood against insects, pesticides are the main concern.

A pressure chamber blows pesticides into the wood.

A topical agent is then sprayed onto the wood to provide permanent protection.

You can also extend the life of your termite treated 4×4 by installing it in a cement ring.

The ring prevents termites from tunneling to the wood.

Spray the wood with a topical pesticide once a year to keep it safe in the future.

While the pressure treatment will help keep the wood safe, you can boost its ability to kill and repel termites with an annual topical spray.

5. Structural degradation

Structural degradation means weathering.

Wood weathers when it gets wet and dry in rapid succession.

It also occurs slowly over time.

Weathered wood is weak.

Its surface can splinter and if the water seeps into the core it can also weaken the wood from within.

Treatments can help prevent such weathering.

One step in this process is to remove moisture from the wood.

Without moisture, the wood has a harder time achieving the moisture level it needs to weather.

It also dries faster.

Certain topicals and chemicals are also used to make it waterproof.

If the treatment can prevent water from penetrating the wood, the surface and its core are protected from the elements.

You must continue to seal the wood with waterproof chemicals throughout its lifespan.

This will prevent your treated 4×4 from undergoing structural degradation.

Conclusion

Treated 4×4 vehicles can survive in the ground for several decades.

However, certain factors can cause even treated 4x4s to spoil more quickly.

Understanding the specific threats to your 4×4 can help you choose the right treated wood for the job.

Annual use of topical pesticides or other sealants on your treated 4×4 can also extend its lifespan.

You can also extend its lifespan by several decades by installing the 4×4 in a cement ring instead of directly in the ground.

Consider these tips above when purchasing and installing treated 4WD vehicles to ensure whatever you build lasts as long as possible.

Trees are wonderful plants and fences are wonderful tools. However, the two do not always match, so attaching the two can sometimes be a little tricky. However, some methods make it possible.

To use a live tree as a fence post, you’ll need floating boards, nails, and proper backup. Trees grow around objects attached directly to them, which is why it’s crucial to use a system that keeps the fence in indirect contact with the tree.

The task may sound daunting, but with some prep and maintenance, trees can help save money spent on fence posts.

How to use a tree as a post

Using a live tree as a post is a common practice among farmers who prefer to use wire fencing to contain livestock. It is inexpensive and does little damage to the tree. However, if you use wrong methods, your fence will become rigid and fragile.

With that in mind, there are a few things to consider before you get started. It is much easier to attach a wire fence to a live tree than it is to attach a wooden fence to a live tree.

This is because the wire is malleable and will move with the tree as it grows. Wood will not do this.

wire fence

Using a live tree as a wire fence post is very easy. All you have to do is choose the method that best suits your needs and run it. It will honestly take almost no time.

Livestock farmers have long used living tree stakes. There are a few things to consider when doing this and don’t worry. We will come to the how after there is a base to proceed.

So let’s talk about methods for a moment before we move on.

Attaching wire to a living tree

Using a live tree to post your wire is easy and only requires some basic hardware.

You have a few options here. You can staple the wire directly into the tree, secure the wire to the tree with ribbon and insulator, or use the nail and board technique.

Tacking wire directly into the tree is an excellent short-term solution. It’s easy and fast. The problem is that a living tree grows around the clamp and wire.

This means the live tree post will engulf the wire, making it impossible to move. That’s fine as long as you never plan on replacing your fence until you’ve cut down that tree.

Otherwise, you’ll get a wire cord attached to broken posts, which will be engulfed by a tree that won’t go away unless you remove the tree.

So that’s great as long as you want either absolute longevity or a short-term fix, ie less than a few months short-term.

The second option, using tape and an insulator, is good for a level wire that won’t experience much pressure. This is quick and easy to maintain. The tree doesn’t grow around it because it just pushes the tape out and stretches it. Above all, it’s an easy fix if something goes wrong.

Unfortunately, this really shouldn’t be used when the wire is heavily loaded. Whether it comes from animals or the environment, stress will cause this method to do weird things that need to be fixed.

The last option is the nail and board technique. This is the most practical, durable, eco-friendly and still pretty affordable. It requires a little effort up front, but it’s worth it.

What you do is:

Get a board of rot-proof wood Attach insulators to the board Put washers on some nails (The washers must grip on the nail head) Drive the nails into the live tree Insert the wire into the insulators

The nail and board combination allows the tree to grow without gobbling up the hardware. It is also very stable and does almost no damage to the tree.

At the bottom of this page there will be a video covering all of these methods. There is a very good representation of the wire options. It also contains important information for wooden fences. However, these are not directly wooden fences.

wooden fence

Honestly, I would discourage you from this method. If you are building a wooden fence and there is a tree in the way, I advise killing and removing the tree or going around it. But unfortunately that’s not why you’re here. You are here to know how to do it.

Well, you really have three choices. You can tie the fence panels to the tree with wire or use a method similar to a nail and board.

To tie the fence, simply take some sturdy wire and tie the panels to the tree. However, this causes the tree to hang in the air, making it very unstable. This is a good option so you have time to think about whether you really want to build a wooden fence around a tree.

When a storm hits, the panels are toasted. Even a light breeze can be enough to damage the fence. Only use this to secure the fence until you’ve built one of the other two options correctly.

A second option is to use a board that attaches to the fences on either side of the living tree and attach the board to the tree. Large bolts with washers are the best option here for fastening and security.

Your third option is basically option two but with tapered panels. If you cut your panels to hug the tree more tightly, you will better secure your fence sides to your tree.

Here is a step-by-step guide:

Measure your panels to taper with the trunk of the living tree post. Cut out your panels. Assemble the sides of your fence (it may take a few cuts before the curve of the tree is really reflected in your boards). Panels to secure fence posts that are not your tree. Attach them to the tree with wire. Attach a rot-resistant board to the fence on either side of your tree. Screw the board into the living tree post

Before you do that, however, I feel obligated to remind you that tree trunks have been expanding by an undetermined amount every year for more than 150 years. As cool as this looks, it won’t last more than a few years without heavy intervention.

Using a tree as a living fence post is possible, but not without constant care and maintenance, so be sure to plan for this preservation.

Required Hardware

The hardware involved here is fairly minimal. However, I would like to explain a few terms for anyone who doesn’t know what I’m saying.

An insulator is basically a type of plastic specifically designed for use outdoors with electrical cords.

A band is just a big tube of rubber. Something similar to surgical tubing. These are great and last a long time. Also, they are not that expensive for the duration of their lifetime.

Rot-resistant woods are generally rot-free after prolonged exposure. These may include pressure treated woods, cedar, redwood, cypress and oak.

That being said, most of the other hardware is pretty basic. You’ve got your screws, washers, nails and wire.

environmental issues

As mentioned above, living trees have a habit of “eating” objects attached to their bark. This is not so bad if you take care of the area around the object and keep the tree healthy.

However, this can quickly lead to problems if you are not careful. When a tree entangles a wire, it causes the rest of the surrounding area to take much more load than normal.

Because a key part of the fence has now become brittle and inflexible. So if some pressure is put on the wire on either side of the live tree post, the wire won’t give.

Again, it’s not a problem if you’re tending the area around the tree post, but if damage does occur it basically means that in order to remove the wire you have to remove the tree.

Tree care techniques

To keep the living tree post from gobbling up your hardware and to keep your fence from being subjected to unnecessary stress, there are a few techniques you can use.

The first is called Pollard. This is used as a technique to control the height of a living tree post.

This requires regular yearly attention and needs to be maintained for the right results to materialize.

The second is called copping. This is less of a prevention technique and more of a technique to encourage healthy growth. It stimulates the tree to sprout offshoots.

These techniques will keep your tree alive and healthy, although they won’t solve the problem of the trunk stretching and engulfing the hardware. To be honest, the only way for you to solve the expanding trunk problem is to kill the tree.

Unfortunately, this leaves you exposed to pests and rot.

examples

Here is the promised video. It deals exclusively with wire fences. However, if you are planning a wooden fence, you also need to know important things.

Unique trees in North Texas:

Bois d’arc

(Maclura pomifera)

By Wendy Pappas

The Bois D’arc (also known as: Osage Orange Hedge Apple, Horse Apple, “Bodark”, Monkey Ball, Bow-Wood, Yellow-Wood, and Mock Orange Tree) originally had a series of river basins in Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas in the Blackland Prairies and Post Oak Savannas. The native range overlapped the range of the Osage tribe, which gives the tree one of its many names. Almost all names refer to the interesting fruit or the strong wood. It has been naturalized in the United States and Canada.

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Osage Orange has an adult height of 30-50 feet and is often wider than it is tall. The leaves are 3-5 inches long and 2-3 inches wide, with an oval shape ending in a slender point. The leaves are arranged alternately on the thorny branch. They are dark glossy green above and paler below, turning yellow in autumn. The tree has a distinctive scalloped branch pattern and strikingly colorful bark that aid in identification.

This tree is known for its unusual fruit, which some organic producers grow. The fruit looks like a plump orange but is yellow/green on the outside and has more pronounced humps than an orange. The fruit produces a milky liquid and a woody pulp. Although the fruit resembles an orange, it is more closely related to the mulberry family. Although not poisonous, the fruit is not typically eaten by animals or humans due to its hard, dry texture. Despite this, squirrels sometimes eat the seeds for food. Osage Orange is a dioecious species, meaning only female trees bear fruit.

Bois D’arc are hardy in most of the United States and can grow in many different environments but prefer fertile, deep soil. They can be used for rows of hedges as a natural barrier for cattle, the wood is strong and dense, making it ideal for fence posts, tool handles, tree nails and even arches (hence the name given by French explorers). The yellow-orange color of the wood makes it attractive for many different uses. Osage Orange typically lives around 75 years with a moderate growth rate of around 1 foot per year.

There are several large solitary trees in the Cross Timbers. Vandergriff Park in Arlington has several large Osage oranges along Johnson Creek such as the tree pictured at the top of the page and shown on this map:

Planted row of shrubs

“Hedgerow” redirects here. For other uses, see Hedgerow (disambiguation)

A hedge or hedge is a series of closely spaced shrubs and sometimes trees planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, e.g. B. between neighboring properties. Hedges used to separate a road from adjacent fields or one field from another and that are old enough to accommodate larger trees are called hedges. Often they serve as windbreaks to improve conditions for adjacent crops, as in bocage country. Hedges, when trimmed and maintained, are also a simple form of topiary.

A hedge often acts as a “living fence” and is sometimes referred to as a “living fence”. This can either consist of individual fence posts connected with wire or other fencing material, or it can be densely planted hedges with no connecting wire. This is common in tropical areas where low-income farmers can demarcate property and reduce maintenance on fence posts that otherwise quickly deteriorate. Depending on the type chosen, many other benefits can be achieved. [1]

history [edit]

A typical old Scottish marsh levee, but without boundary trees

The evolution of the hedges over the centuries is preserved in their structure. The first hedgerows enclosed land for grain crops during the Neolithic period (4000–6000 years ago). Farms were about 5 to 10 hectares (12 to 25 acres) in size, with fields of about 0.1 hectares (0.25 acres) for hand cultivation. Some hedges date back to the Bronze and Iron Age 2000-4000 years ago when traditional landscape patterns were established. Others were built during medieval field rationalizations; more was created during the industrial boom of the 18th and 19th centuries, when heaths and low mountain ranges were fenced off.

It is estimated that many hedgerows separating fields from paths in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands have been in existence for over seven hundred years, dating back to the Middle Ages. The root of the word “hedge” is much older: it appears in Old English, German (Hecke) and Dutch (haag) meaning “enclosure”, as in the name of the Dutch city of The Hague, or more formally ‘s Gravenhage, what the hedge of the count means. Charles the Bald is said to have complained that some unauthorized men were building haies et fertés in 864, at a time when most official fortifications were being constructed of wooden stockades; densely woven hawthorn hedges.[2]

In parts of Britain, early hedgerows were destroyed to make way for the open land manorial system. Many were replaced after the Enclosure Acts, then removed again during modern agricultural intensification, and now some are being replanted for wildlife.

Composition [ edit ]

A hedge can consist of one or more species, typically mixed at random. In many newly planted British hedges at least 60 per cent of the shrubs are hawthorn, blackthorn and (in the South West) hazel, alone or in combination. The first two are particularly effective barriers for livestock. In North America, Maclura pomifera (i.e., honeysuckle) was grown to create a barrier to exclude free-roaming livestock from vegetable gardens and cornfields.[3] Other shrubs and trees used are holly, beech, oak, ash and willow; the last three can grow very large.[4] About the hedgerows in Normandy, France, Martin Blumenson said:

The hedge is a fence, half earth, half hedge. The wall at the base is a parapet of earth, varying in thickness from one to four feet or more, and in height from three to twelve feet. Growing out of the wall is a hedge of hawthorn, brambles, vines and trees one to three feet thick. Originally used as property boundaries, hedgerows protect crops and livestock from the ocean winds that sweep across the land.[5]

The hedgerows of Normandy became barriers that slowed the advance of Allied troops after the D-Day invasion of World War II. Allied forces modified their armored vehicles to facilitate breaking out of their beachheads in the Normandy Bocage.

Species [ edit ]

Formal or modern garden hedges are grown in many varieties, including the following types:

Hedge trees[edit]

Oak and beech hedges are common in Britain

Hedge trees are trees that grow in hedges but are allowed to grow to their full height and width. There are thought to be around 1.8 million hedgerow trees in Britain (counting only those whose canopy does not touch others), perhaps 98% of which are in England and Wales.[6] Hedge trees are both an important part of the English landscape and valuable wildlife habitat.[6] Many hedge trees are old-established trees and therefore of great interest to wildlife.

The most common species are English oak (Quercus robur) and ash (Fraxinus excelsior), although field elm (Ulmus minor ‘Atinia’) would have been common in the past. Around 20 million elms, most of them hedge trees, were felled or died of Dutch elm disease in the late 1960s. Many other species are used, notably common beech (Fagus sylvatica) and various nut and fruit trees.[6]

The age structure of UK hedge trees is old because the number of new trees is insufficient to replace the number of trees lost to old age or disease.[6]

New trees can be created by planting, but it is generally more successful to leave standard trees in the hedge system. Trees should be no closer than 10 meters (33 feet) apart and the spacing should be varied to create a more natural landscape.[6] The spacing allows the young trees to develop full crowns without competing or providing too much shade.[6]

Hedge trees are thought to cause gaps in hedges, but it has been found that cutting off some low branches allows enough light through to the hedge below to allow it to grow.

Importance of hedges[edit]

Hedgerows are recognized as part of the cultural heritage and historical record and for their great wildlife[7] and landscape value. They are also increasingly valued for their important role in preventing soil loss and reducing pollution, as well as their potential to regulate water supplies and reduce flooding.[8] There is an increased diversity of earthworms in the soils under hedges, which also help store organic carbon and support diverse communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi.[9]

In addition to keeping the environment healthy, hedges also play a major role in providing shelter for smaller animals such as birds and insects.[10] A recent study by Emma Coulthard mentioned the possibility that hedge moths like Acronicta rumicis can act as guides when flying from one location to another. Because moths are nocturnal, they are very unlikely to use visual aids for orientation, but rather follow sensory or olfactory markings on the hedges.[11] Larkin et al. 2013 find that 100% of Northwest European farms have hedgerows, which account for 43% of the wildlife habitat there.[7]

Historically, hedgerows were used as a source of firewood and as a shelter from wind, rain, and sun for crops, livestock, and people. Today, uses of mature hedges include screening unsightly developments.[8]

In England and Wales, agricultural hedgerow removal is regulated by the Hedgerows Regulations 1997, administered by the local planning authority.

Dating [ edit ]

Beech trees planted on a marsh dike (border hedge) from the 18th century.

Centuries-old hedges are inhabited by other species. This can be useful to determine the age of the hedge. Hooper’s rule (named after Dr. Max Hooper) is based on ecological data of hedges of known ages and suggests that a hedge’s age can be roughly estimated by counting the number of woody species at a distance of thirty yards and multiplying by 110 years.[12]

Max Hooper published his original formula in the 1974 book Hedges. This method is just a rule of thumb and may vary by a few centuries; it should always be supported by documentary evidence whenever possible and take other factors into account. Among the caveats is the fact that planted hedges, hedges with elms and hedgerows in the north of England do not follow the rule as closely. Even with hedges that are more than a thousand years old, the formula does not work.

The Hooper scheme is important not least for its potential use in determining what is an important hedge, given its protection in the Department of Environment’s Hedgerows Regulations (1997; No. 1160) based on age and other factors.[13 ]

distance [edit]

Hedge removal is part of the transition of farmland from low-intensity farming to high-intensity farming. Removing hedges results in larger fields, making sowing and harvesting crops easier, faster and cheaper, and freeing up more surface area for growing the crops, increasing yield and profits.

Hedgerows serve as important wildlife corridors, particularly in the United Kingdom, where they connect the country’s rugged old-growth forests. They also serve as a habitat for birds and other animals. Because the land within a few feet of hedgerows is difficult to plow, seed, or spray with herbicides, the land around hedgerows also typically has high plant diversity. Hedges also serve to stabilize the soil and, on slopes, prevent the soil from creeping and the leaching of minerals and plant nutrients. Mining thus weakens the soil and leads to erosion.

Hedgerows have been removed in the United Kingdom since World War I, as technology made intensive farming possible and growing populations demanded more food from the land. The trend has slowed somewhat since the 1980s, when cheap food imports reduced demand for British farmland and the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy made environmental projects financially viable. Within the framework of reforms of national and EU agricultural policies, the environmental impact of agriculture is coming more to the fore, and hedges are being preserved and replanted in many places.

In England and Wales, agricultural hedgerow removal is regulated by the Hedgerows Regulations 1997, administered by the local planning authority.

Hedgerow [edit]

A stretch of newly laid traditional hedges near Middleton, Northamptonshire

If hedges are not regularly cared for and trimmed, gaps tend to form at the base over many years. Essentially, hedging consists of cutting the stem of each plant almost completely near the base, bending it over, and weaving or braiding it between wooden stakes. This also encourages new growth from the base of each plant. Originally, the main purpose of laying a hedge was to keep the hedge secure. Some side branches were also removed and used as firewood.

Maintaining and creating hedges as an impenetrable barrier for livestock is a manual art. There are many local hedge planting traditions in Britain, each with its own style. Hedgerows are still established today[14] not only for aesthetic and functional reasons, but also for their ecological role in protecting wildlife and preventing soil erosion.

Hedge trimming [ edit ]

An alternative to hedging is trimming with a tractor-mounted flail cutter or circular saw or hedge trimmer.[15] The cutting height can be increased slightly every year. Trimming a hedge encourages bushy growth. When using a flail knife, the flail must be kept sharp to ensure the hedge trim is effective. The disadvantage of this is that the hedge species needs a few years before it blooms again and then bears fruit for animals and humans.[16] If the hedge is cut several times at the same height, a “hard knuckle” forms from this height – similar to the shape of a pollard tree. In addition, hedge trimming leads to habitat destruction of species such as the lesser egg moth, which spend almost their entire life cycle in blackthorn and hawthorn hedges. This has led to a decline in the moth population. It is now in short supply across the UK.[17]

General hedge management [ edit ]

An organization called Hedgelink UK[18] has developed a scale for ‘hedge management’ ranging from 1 to 10. “1” describes the measures to be taken for a heavily over-pruned hedge, “5” is a healthy, dense hedge, more than 2 meters high and “10” is a hedge that has not been maintained at all and has become a line of trees has become.

The RSPB suggests not trimming hedges in the UK between March and August. This serves to protect the legally protected breeding birds.[19]

stall [ edit ]

The techniques of stubbing and hard pruning can be used to rejuvenate a hedge where hedging is not appropriate.[20]

Types [ edit ]

Immediate protection[ edit ]

The term immediate hedge has been known since the beginning of this century for hedge plants that are planted together in such a way that they form a mature hedge with a height of at least 1.2 meters from the time of planting together. They are usually created from hedge elements or individual plants, so few are real hedges to begin with as the plants need time to grow and intertwine into a real hedge.

An example of an immediate hedge can be seen on the Elveden Hall Estate in East Anglia[21] where fields of hedges have been growing in cultivated rows since 1998. The development of this type of mature hedge has resulted in such products being specified by landscape architects, garden designers, property developers, insurance companies, sports clubs, schools and local authorities as well as many private homeowners. Demand from planning authorities has also increased by requiring developers to plant mature hedges rather than just whips (a slender, unbranched shoot or plant).

Immediate hedge cultivation in the fields of Elveden Estate

A “true” instant hedge could be defined as a managed root growth system, allowing the hedge to be sold with a continuous strip of roots (rather than individual plants), which then allows for year-round planting. During the approximately 8 year production period, all stock should be watered, sheared and treated with controlled release nutrients to optimize health.

Quickset hedge [ edit ]

“Quickset” redirects here. For the manufacturer of the lock, see Kwikset. For software and cloud product information, visit Universal Electronics Inc

A quickset hedge is a type of hedge made by planting live hawthorn (common hawthorn) cuttings directly into the soil (hazel does not sprout from cuttings).[22] Once planted, these cuttings will root and form new plants, creating a dense barrier. The technique is ancient and the term quickset hedge is first mentioned in 1484.[23] The word fast in the name refers to the fact that the cuttings are alive (as in “the living and the dead”) rather than the speed at which the hedge grows, although it establishes itself fairly quickly. An alternate meaning of quickset hedging is any hedge formed from live plants or formed from live plants in combination with a fence. The quick approach technique can also be used for many other shrubs and trees.

Devon hedge [ edit ]

A Devon hedge is an earth bank covered with shrubs. The bank can be faced with turf or stones. When topped with stones, the stones are generally placed on edge and often laid flat around gates.

A quarter of Devon’s hedgerows are believed to be over 800 years old.[24] There are approximately 33,000 miles (53,000 km) of Devon Hedge,[24] more than any other county. Traditional farming throughout the county has meant fewer hedgerows have been removed in Devon than elsewhere.

Devon hedges are particularly important for wildlife habitat. Around 20% of Britain’s species-rich hedgerows are found in Devon.[25] Over 600 species of flowering plants, 1500 species of insects, 65 species of birds and 20 species of mammals live or feed in Devon hedgerows.[25]

Hedge laying in Devon is usually referred to as soaking and involves cutting and laying steepers (the stems) along the top of the bank and securing them with crooks (forked sticks).

Cornish hedge[ edit ]

A Cornish hedge is an earth bank with stones.[26] It usually consists of large blocks of stone erected on either side of a narrow bank of earth and held in place with interlocking stones. The neat rows of square stones at the top are called “Edgers”. The top of the hedge is planted with turf.[27]

Sometimes hedge plants or trees are planted on top of the hedge to increase its windbreaking height. A rich flora develops over the life of a Cornish hedge. The Cornish hedge contributes to the distinctive field pattern of the Cornish landscape and its semi-natural wildlife habitat. Today there are around 48,000 km of hedgerows in Cornwall.[28]

Hedges suffer from the effects of tree roots, burrowing rabbits, rain, wind, livestock and people. How often repairs are needed depends on how well the hedge was constructed, the size of its stone, and what has happened to it since the last repair. Typically, a hedge will need repairs about every 150 years or less if fenced. Building new hedges and repairing existing hedges is a craft and there are professional hedgers in Cornwall. The Cornish Hedge Research and Education Group (CHREG) supports traditional skills development and works with Cornwall Council, FWAG (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group), Stone Academy Bodmin, Cornwall AONB, Country Trust and professional hedgers to explore the future of Cornish hedges to secure in the landscape.

Gardening[edit]

Hedges, both trimmed and untrimmed, are often used as an ornament in the design of gardens. Typical shrubs for trimmed hedges include privet, hawthorn, beech, yew, Leyland cypress, hemlock, arborvitae, barberry, boxwood, holly, oleander, lavender. A fad of the early 20th century was tapestry hedges using a mix of gold, green and bluish dwarf conifers or beech and copper beech. Untrimmed hedges take up more space, generally overpriced in modern gardens, but compensate by flowering. Rosa multiflora is commonly used as a dense hedge along the median of dual carriageways, such as parkways in the United States. In mild climates, more exotic flowering hedges are formed with Ceanothus, Hibiscus, Camellia, Orange Jessamine (Murraya paniculata)[1] or Lillypilly (Syzygium species). It is also possible to make a really nice and dense hedge out of other deciduous plants, but they do not have decorative flowers like the previously mentioned shrubs.

A trimmed beech hedge in Germany, grown as high as a house for privacy and wind protection

Hedges of clipped trees forming avenues are a feature of 16th-century Italian gardens such as the Boboli Gardens in Florence and formal French gardens in the manner of André Le Nôtre, e.g. in the Gardens of Versailles, where they are surrounded by bosquets, or formalized areas of woodland. The English version of this was the wilderness, which was common in large gardens until the English landscape garden style and the advent of shrubbery began to supplant it from about 1750.[29] The ‘hedge on stilts’ of trimmed hornbeams at Hidcote Manor Garden, Gloucestershire is famous and has sometimes been imitated; It is actually a standard French and Italian style of bosquet.

Hedges below knee height are generally considered boundaries. In the 16th and early 17th centuries, intricately shaped and intricate borders in the form of knot gardens or parterres were fashionable in Europe. Generally, they were appreciated from an elevated position, either from the windows of a house or a patio.

Clipped hedges above eye level can be laid out in the form of a maze or garden maze. Few such mazes survived the shift in trend towards more naturalistic planting in the 18th and 19th centuries, but many were replanted in restorations of older gardens in the 20th century. An example is behind the Governor’s Palace, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.

Hedges trimmed in a California lawn

Hedges and pruning can both be used to add privacy to a garden, as a buffer against visual pollution, and to conceal fences. A hedge can be aesthetically pleasing, such as a tapestry hedge, where alternating species are planted at regular intervals to showcase different colors or textures.

In America, fences have always been more common than hedges to mark garden boundaries. The English radical William Cobbett complained about this as early as 1819:

And why shouldn’t America have that most beautiful and useful plant [the hawthorn]? She has English Gew-Gaws, English theater actors, English cards and English dice and billiards; English stupidities and English vices enough in all conscience; and why not English hedges instead of post-and-bar and plank fences? If instead of these sterile-looking and desolate fences the gardens and lawns and fields in the neighborhoods of New York and other towns and cities were divided by hastily set hedges, what a difference the change would make in the appearance, and also in the true value, of these gardens , meadows and fields![30]

Regulation [ edit ]

In the US, some local jurisdictions may strictly regulate the placement or height of a hedge, such as the case in which a resident of the city of Palo Alto was arrested for allowing her xylosma hedge to grow beyond two feet.[31 ]

In the UK, the owner of a large hedge that interferes with the proper use of the neighboring property can be persuaded to trim it down. In England and Wales tall hedges fall under Part 8 of the Anti-Social Behavior Act 2003. For a hedge to be eligible for a reduction it must consist wholly or principally of a row of two or more evergreen or semi-evergreen trees or shrubs and be over 2 meters tall . To some extent it has to be a barrier to light or access. Because of its magnitude, it must interfere with the fair use of the applicant’s property (either the house or the garden).[19] Later laws with similar effect were introduced in Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and Scotland.

Significant hedges[ edit ]

Barrier de Pieux) surrounds Leao-tong), with an additional branch leading northeast to the An early 18th-century French Jesuit map the Manchus

The 19th-century Great Hedge of India was probably the largest example of a hedge used as a barrier. It was planted by the British and used to collect taxes.

The willow palisade, built during the early Qing Dynasty (17th century) to control the movement of people and collect taxes on ginseng and timber in southern Manchuria, also had hedge-like features. The palisade comprised two dikes and a ditch between them, the dikes topped by rows of willow trees tied together by their branches. The palisade, which gradually fell into disrepair in the late 18th and 19th centuries, disappeared in the early 20th century, its remaining pastures felled by soldiers from the two countries during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905.

The Meikleour Beech Hedges near Meikleour in Scotland are listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest and longest hedgerow on earth, reaching 30 meters (98 ft) in height and 530 meters (0.33 miles) in length . The beech trees were planted in 1745 by Jean Mercer on the Marquess of Lansdowne’s Meikleour estate.

The hedgerows and sunken lanes of Normandy, France posed a problem for Allied tanks after Operation Overlord, the invasion of Europe, in World War II. The hedgerows prevented the tanks from moving freely in the area until they were tusked were equipped.

See also[edit]

Notes [edit]

References[ edit ]

Brooks, Alan and Agate, Elizabeth Agate (1998). Hedging, a practical handbook. British Trust for Conservation Volunteers. ISBN 978-0-946-75217-1

. British Trust for Conservation Volunteers. ISBN 978-0-946-75217-1 Pollard, E., Hooper, MD and Moore, N.W. (1974). hedges . London: Collins.

. London: Collins. Rackham, Oliver (1986). The history of the landscape. London: JM Dent and Sons.

. London: JM Dent and Sons. van Der Horst, Arend Jan (1995) [1994]. “Hedges”. Art of the formal garden. Trans. from Dutch by Mary Charles. London: Kassel. ISBN 0-304-34742-6.

News article [ edit ]

There have been a few articles in the media about using Instant Hedges:

When you start trimming hedges, you may not know how far you can prune a shrub before killing it. I thought I shed some light on what you can prune from a plant without harming it.

All hedges are living creatures and will grow back if you are careful when trimming. As long as you haven’t fundamentally damaged their structure, you can help them recover from pruning and they should respond well to occasional pruning and trimming.

There are a few obvious dos and don’ts to hedge trimming and if you follow the basic principles, your hedges will survive your efforts to keep them in good condition. Let’s find out more!

What is a hedge made of?

A hedge is a living thing; a plant whose main components are roots, branches and leaves. Hedges can be either evergreen (they keep their leaves all year round) or deciduous (they usually shed their leaves in winter).

When a hedge is replanted, it spends time building up its root network to ensure it can extract important minerals from the soil. Once this is achieved, branches will grow that contain leaves, and over time these can become large and bushy; hence the need for hedge trimming.

Over the course of a year, a hedge plant will focus on either growing roots or growing shoots, and the effect and timing of your trimming and pruning will affect its success and overall health.

How far can you cut back a hedge?

The rule of thumb for trimming a hedge is not to cut back more than a third of the total volume of the hedge at a time. This is enough to encourage new growth in the top half of the plant without seriously affecting its overall well-being.

If you decide to trim your hedge, it’s a good idea to look at the plant to understand how its growth went so you can prune specific areas without damaging the underlying structure of the plant. Most hedges have an internal skeleton; a thicker structure that supports the smaller branches and leaves, and unless you’re pruning a plant hard, leave that skeleton alone.

The goal of hedge trimming is to reduce unwanted growth to encourage new leaves and maintain a beautiful shape. Pruning your hedge in the spring encourages the plant to produce new shoots and leaves in the summer, resulting in denser foliage and better overall shrub health.

What happens if you cut a hedge too much?

If you prune a hedge too far, you can jeopardize its ability to produce new leaves and shoots during recovery. This can starve the plant, destabilize its hormone balance and even cause the plant to die.

Plants use hormones to grow and they have two main types of hormones:

cytokines

auxins

Cytokines are the hormones that stimulate root growth, while auxins support bud and leaf growth. In a healthy plant, these are balanced, allowing the plant to focus on root growth in winter and leaves in spring and summer. When you prune a hedge plant, you can prevent auxins from fulfilling their function in growing new shoots, which affects the amount of cytokine activity, resulting in impaired root growth, which then leads to lower auxin production the following year can. It is a hormonal snowball effect that can cause lasting damage to a plant’s well-being.

Too much hedge trimming can also prevent the plant from getting energy from the sun, causing it to become malnourished. Plants convert sunlight into energy through photosynthesis, and removing too many of their solar cells (leaves) can rob your plant of the energy it needs to survive.

Can you kill a hedge by cutting it down?

You can kill a hedge by clipping its structure past the repair point. Trimming the hedge in the fall or winter increases the risk of fungus or other infections that can also kill the plant.

Both are easily avoidable consequences. Hedges should only ever be trimmed in late spring or early summer so that they can benefit from the warmth of the seasons and thrive. The increased hours of sunshine and the beneficial ecosystem—the birds, bees, and other creatures that hedges utilize—will all help support the plant’s growth.

By tending your hedges during the wetter months, you deprive the plant of a chance to dry out and recover. Shrubs are often at risk from fungi and other invasive species year-round, but a healthy plant has a good chance of withstanding such threats. However, if a plant is trying to recover from a pruning without enough solar energy, or if it is constantly wet, the chances of contracting infections greatly increase.

Once a fungal infection has entered a hedge plant, it can be difficult to eradicate and when it affects the plant’s skeleton it can be very damaging. You also run the risk of the infections spreading to other plants during the wetter months, which can be disastrous for your hedges.

It’s a sad day when a hedge dies, especially when you’ve enjoyed its presence, and so some care and attention when trimming it will go a long way in preventing this tragedy. I’ve written a hedge trimming guide that covers all the basics so you can tend to your hedges with confidence.

If you’re not sure when to trim your hedges, I’ve got you covered there too!

Related Questions:

How can you repair a damaged hedge?

It will take time to repair a damaged hedge, but if you protect the damaged areas from the weather and establish a regular feeding/watering schedule, most hedge plants will recover.

Assuming that the damage hasn’t destroyed the underlying structure of the plant and that there are areas where leaves are growing, you can use fleece to protect the most affected parts of the plant from the cold and wet. This gives the plant a chance to dry out and harden, a necessary step to ward off a fungal infection.

All plants benefit from fertilization and watering, and while nature can do most of this work, using the right fertilizers at the base of the plant can help the roots provide additional hormones and energy to encourage recovery.

For a more detailed answer, be sure to read my post on how to revive a dying hedge.

What tools can I use to trim a hedge?

With a good set of pruning shears and pruning shears, you can accomplish most of your hedge trimming goals. If you have a lot of area to trim, an electric hedge trimmer comes in handy, but if you’re budget conscious you can opt to rent one instead of buying one.

I’ve written a few posts that may help you with this matter, but the Budget Hedge Trimming Tools Guide is a great place to start.

It’s that time again: The nights are long and the temperatures have plummeted. Gardens, which bear the brunt of the winter months, require expert and attentive maintenance at this time of year. One aspect of your garden that needs special winter treatment to survive is your hedges.

In this blog post, the Lawnmowers Direct team share their top tips for caring for your hedge in winter. Read on, follow all the tips and watch your hedge survive the cold spell from the warmth of your home.

Can your hedges grow in winter?

It may seem that you don’t see much progress in the garden during winter, but generally deciduous hedges grow rapidly at the beginning of each year, which happens to be the peak of winter.

Trimming these types of hedges back in the winter is a necessity to ensure they don’t get out of control, but be careful not to trim them back too much lest they become sparse.

Is it too cold to trim hedges?

The answer to this question is not easy due to the different types of hedges that are often grown in home gardens. But generally it’s fine to trim deciduous hedges, but not evergreen trees, which shouldn’t be trimmed until spring.

Most other plants are dormant during the winter, which is usually the best time to make adjustments to their shape. You should prune heavily at the end of winter or very early in spring, before new growth begins and after really cold temperatures.

Plant deciduous hedges in mid-autumn to late winter

Once the leaves have fallen, you can design your dream row of hedges and plant beech, hawthorn and hornbeam at any time.

In all cases, it is best to wait until the soil can be easily tilled before planting, especially if the soil is frozen or waterlogged. Imagine the nightmare of having bought the ideal plant and not even being able to dig a hole in your frozen garden to house it!

If a cold winter catches you by surprise and throws your plans for planting new hedges in jeopardy, keep the plants in a frost-free shed and cover their roots with damp straw, paper or potting soil, and plastic wrap. This will prevent them from drying out until the weather is warm enough to plant them. Alternatively, they can be temporarily planted very close together in a ditch, with the roots covered to protect against frost…

Some final advice

Remember that one of the most effective ways to protect your favorite hedges from harsh winter conditions is to cover them and vulnerable shrubs with a protective sheet.

This can consist of different materials such as fleece, bracken, straw and styrofoam. You can also apply a thick layer of mulch at the base of your hedges as a finishing touch to add extra protection from freezing temperatures.

Lawnmowers Direct is an online and store retailer of gardening and horticultural machinery in Norfolk and Suffolk, providing local gardeners with equipment and related maintenance since 1972.

Move to the top of the branch. Choose a spot that is an inch away from your first cut. Cut carefully until the branch breaks off.

Find the collar of branches on your trunk. This is the stem tissue around the base of the branch. On most trees, you’ll see some swelling and rougher bark in this area. You want to make your final cut just to the outside of this collar, but without leaving a stub. Make a full cut with a 45 degree angle starting from the base of the tree. This prevents water damage and promotes rapid callus formation.

Pruning trees may seem like a big project – and it can be. I recommend leaving large, established shade trees to qualified arborists and arborists. They have the appropriate equipment and training to safely remove large branches. Ornamental and fruit trees are the perfect place to learn how to prune a tree. Most are easily accessible and require simple tools.

Start pruning trees early

A proactive homeowner begins pruning as soon as a tree is planted. Diseased, dead and broken branches should be removed immediately. Shape cutting is only necessary in the first winter after planting. Regular pruning throughout the tree’s life reduces labor and stress on the tree. Pruning a tree a little every year creates a strong and beautiful tree from the start.

When is the best time of year to prune trees?

There’s never a bad time to remove dead, damaged or diseased branches. But most trees benefit from pruning in mid to late winter. Pruning during dormancy will encourage new growth once the weather warms up. The absence of leaves after fall allows you to easily identify branches and branches that need to be removed.

Note that some trees may bleed sap if pruned in late winter. For example, winter pruning of maple trees is ideal but can cause bleeding. Don’t worry – the sap will stop flowing as soon as the tree starts putting on leaves. It is not dangerous and will not harm your tree.

Although I like to do my cutting plan in the fall, I always wait a few months before actually starting the cut. Pruning trees in the fall can introduce disease. In the case of a warm fall, it might even encourage new growth that will be damaged as temperatures drop.

Summer pruning of trees is not a popular option, but can sometimes be beneficial if done with care. Experienced gardeners use summer pruning to control growth by slowing a tree or branch’s development. The best time for this form of pruning is just after seasonal growth has peaked. By removing the entire leaf surface of the plant, you reduce the amount of nutrients sent to the roots and overall growth of the tree.

Now that we’ve determined the best time of year to prune trees, let’s talk flowering trees. They don’t follow the rules exactly. Flowering trees fall into two categories: early bloomers and late bloomers.

Early flowering trees

Early flowering trees put buds on last year’s growth. For example, a tree that blooms early in 2018 will bloom on 2017 growth. If you prune over the winter, your tree will not bloom. Instead, prune right after the tree blooms. Early flowering trees include:

apricot

Apple Cherry

ornamental cherry

Blossoming plum

magnolia

Late flowering trees

Trees that bloom in late spring to early summer set buds on that year’s new growth. For example, a tree that blooms in June of that year blooms on growth from the same year. These trees should be pruned in early spring for best flowering:

catalpa

dogwood

American smoke tree

hawthorn

Japanese tree lilac

Three pruning methods for trees

There are many ways to improve both health and shape of a tree. The goal of each is to create a tree with good light and air circulation, attractive qualities, and strength. The four most popular tree pruning methods for general pruning are crown thinning, crown raising, crown reduction, and crown cleaning. You may notice that any pruning method affects the crown of the tree. That’s because the tree canopy is essential for the production of leaves for photosynthesis. Without a strong and healthy crown, the rest of the tree will weaken over time.

crown thinning

Crown thinning involves pruning a tree to remove certain living branches to reduce a tree’s overall density. Thinning is the most common pruning performed on mature trees. It increases sunlight penetration and air circulation. It can also reduce stress on selected limbs from gravity, wind, ice or snow.

Because the goal is not to change the size or shape of the tree, the thinning should be consistent throughout the tree. You should only remove 10 to 20 percent of the branches from the edge of the canopy. Large trees will benefit from removing the end portions of branches that are 1 to 4 inches in diameter. Small ornamental trees and fruit trees can be thinned by removing smaller branches that are ¼ to ½ inch thick. You should prune trees for crown thinning so that the tree still appears completely untrimmed.

We have 2,000 feet of property that we need to fence off to keep cattle from roaming onto our neighbors’ land and upsetting them, but we don’t have the money and can’t afford a traditional fencing. Besides, we don’t want one. They take too much maintenance over the years and offer nothing in addition to a plain, boring fence. And so we decided that planting a living fence was something for us. The finished product will – in theory at least – be “bull-strong and hog-tight” – unlike most other traditional fencing methods – will provide a habitat for wildlife and an indefinite, sustainable source of firewood for our family with its annual trimming we give it to keep it at a manageable level.

What is a living fence? Our definition and goal for this project is the following: a 4 foot tall, thorny, impenetrable living barrier that will prevent unwanted critters from entering our land and keep our livestock on our land even if they escape. According to our findings, this is possible within 4 years under the best circumstances.

There are very limited resources describing how to build such a fence, but from various sources (online search engines, books, YouTube videos, etc.) we put together our plan. What follows is how we decided to do it. Some sources spoke of planting the Osage trees five feet apart and simply using the mature tree trunk as a fence post. It seemed silly to us if we could spend a week or two every year for a couple of years training it to the shape and strength we wanted and never had to bother with expensive wire over the years or to repair wooden fences. This fence we would put up once in our lives and if it was maintained by our descendants and their families after we died, it would be a fence that would be used for generations!

Enough chatter for now. I’ll get to the point step by step now.

Step 1: Gather enough hedge apples for your fence

Some people call them “monkey brains” and use them to ward off spiders in basements, but we call them hedge apples. We knew we needed LOTS of these as we were hoping to plant enough to cover 2,000 linear feet of the property perimeter. And so my 4 year old and I spent about 2 hours collecting enough hedge apples to completely fill the trunk of my Toyota Yaris. Here in Ohio, collecting is a breeze as they can be found in abundance in parks, yards, and ditches near us. We picked them up in November and as it turned out, that trunk load was the perfect amount. We had some left over and now find that we could have watered with a heavier hand in some spots. Thus, a full trunk load is perfect for 2,000 linear feet.

​

Step 2: Put the hedge apples in tubs, troughs, containers and overwinter

In order for Osage Orange seeds to germinate, they must be stratified (the cooling and heating that occurs to break the dormancy of the seed) and carified (refers to the breaking or tearing of the seed’s “husk”, which is the germination allows to take place) or be exposed to the cold temperatures over the winter in order to germinate successfully in the spring. If you live in an area that stays fairly warm in the winter, I suppose you should use your fridge for this purpose. The tree is said to have a “hardiness zone” of 4-10.

When we got home with our Osage Orange “fruit” we put it in various buckets, bins and bins that weren’t being used. We exposed them to the elements to slowly degrade over the winter. Some of our bins had holes in the bottom, some didn’t. It didn’t matter one way or the other. When we checked on them in the spring they were pretty much broken down and were soft, mushy and smelly. As it turns out, this is perfectly normal and exactly what you want.

Step 3: Plow or otherwise prepare the area for planting

In late winter/very early spring, when the soil was soft enough, we plowed the area to be planted. Then we went back and removed the sod and broke up large clods of earth to give our seeds the best possible start. After the fact, if we had access to soil and had the time to transport it to site, it might have helped to cover the sod with paper or cardboard, layer compost on top, and plant inside. In addition, the “right” tractor attachment would not have hurt either. We just went with what we had and did what we could and they did great!

Some sources indicated that the land might be plowed in late fall or early winter before planting, but we didn’t fully commit to our plan until it was too late. So we chose spring.

Above the land looked right after plowing and below it looked after we had removed the sod and broken up the big clods of earth into loose soil.

​

Step 4: Break apart the hedge apples

When spring arrives, break apart individual hedge apples to ensure the seeds are more evenly distributed when watering the manure. A slurry is simply a seed mix that is poured into the area/ditch to be planted. We wore gloves because this was a smelly job and we didn’t want that smell to follow us into the house. It didn’t take as long as you might think after seeing the trunk full I showed you earlier. After they’ve been layered and scored, they’re much easier to break apart.

​

Step 5: Prepare the slurry

Mix the prickly pear pits with a little water to create a gooey mixture that has the consistency of pancake batter. We had some extra compost on hand, so we tossed in a few handfuls per bucket to be safe. We used a drill mixer and it did the job beautifully!

​

Below: Finished slip mixture. Ready to pour!

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Step 6: Pour the slurry mixture onto the prepared area

​

Step 7: Cover slurry

Cover with compost or whatever soil you have available. We have been making wonderful life giving compost to treat our manure with over the last few years.

​

Step 8: Wait and Watch…

It took a little under a month for our Osage Orange seeds to germinate. By the time they started to sprout, life had shot up a few notches here, and we were knee-deep at work. As a result, weeds surrounded our seedlings. Interestingly, however, they all seemed fine. It may have been unnecessary, but I did a combination of weeding and weeding around the living fence area. There seemed to be no clear indication of whether those who were weeded out tended to do better than those who were “neglected”. Those that look the weakest are actually growing next to a field that has been conventionally farmed for the last two years. So I assume that in this region of our circumference the nutrients were depleted and as a result they were composted.

​

Step 9: Fill in the blanks

While germination rates were out of control (probably around 90%), there were some areas where growth was sparse. My original plan was to transplant seedlings from other areas to the barren areas. Transplanting when they were tiny (2 inches tall or less) proved effective. However, transplanting when they had grown larger than a few inches was not effective. As you can see below, I spent most of a day transplanting a ton of “teenage” Osage trees, only to find these sad dead guys a week later. We didn’t have much rain that particular week, which could have been a major contributor to their demise, but making sure they were adequately watered was not an option at the time.

Rather than spending extra time transplanting tiny Osage trees this year, we plan to collect mulberry seeds from our property in the spring and plant them in the gaps. Why mulberry? Mulberry trees are cousins ​​of the Osage Orange and their roots will fuse over time and become a single, living fence! So we will have parts of our fence that will bear fruit which is great for all the livestock we have on our land and great for us and we love mulberries!

One of the reasons I don’t think they survived is that their taproot was well established by this point (4 months old) and even being incredibly careful and taking my time resulted in some damage to the root structure; endanger the small tree.

Below is a closeup of the roots of these little suckers.

Step 10: Thin out seedlings to 6-12 inches

In addition to transplanting to fill in voids, they need to be thinned out to 6-12 inches to provide enough room for adequate growth. We read 12 inches but I got it wrong on the side of 6-12 because some areas of the fence performed better than others. Where sprouts were plentiful and deep green, I thinned to 12 inches. Where sprouts were a little more yellow and less plentiful, I thinned them closer to 6 inches to give some wiggle room should some not fare well in the winter. Next spring I plan on a complete thinning to 12 inches.

Here are some photos of thinned sections of our fence. Some heavily “wild” areas have been treated with cardboard and a layer of mulch or wood over it to hold them down for longer term weed control.

These thorns are no joke; even at this stage.

Once the rest of the fence is thinned out we will be done with the fence by next spring. If we have the time and some extra compost I can go through it and add it to any that look worse.

Step 11: Carefully bend over the plants and bury the “heads”.

The next big step that awaits us will happen next year — likely in the fall — when the trees are about a foot tall. We bend the plant over and plant the top of the plant in the ground six inches toward its neighbor.

Photo from a Mother Earth News article entitled “Living Fences: How-To, Advantages, and Tips”

Shooters emerge from the plant, which can then be braided together the following year.

Photo from a Mother Earth News article entitled “Living Fences: How-To, Advantages, and Tips”

We’ll be sure to post updated images as we move forward with this process, so stay tuned friends! For the latest on what’s happening here at the Humble Hive Sustainable Family Farm, like us on Facebook and check out the rest of our site!

Rules for hedges and roots growing into your property

By: Jeff Durham – Updated: July 24, 2022 | *Discuss tweet

A hedge is often preferred to a fence when used to separate the boundary between two adjacent properties. It can be more aesthetically pleasing and add character to a property, not to mention the fact that it provides both shelter and food for a large number of wildlife species. So that’s the good news. What’s the bad?

Hedges can sometimes cause disputes between neighbors when they become unkempt, when roots begin to spread, or when the hedge grows too tall and begins to affect the amount of sunlight reaching a neighbor’s property. There are numerous legal rights, obligations and restrictions relating to hedging, which are described below.

your rights

Normally, you do not need a permit to plant a hedge in your yard if it is strictly within your property line. However, you must get your neighbor’s permission if you are considering planting a hedge to separate adjacent properties right at the boundary line. Provided there are no boundary disputes and both parties agree to the hedge, you are usually both responsible for maintaining the hedge on your own side. You can trim the hedge back to your neighbor’s border, although there are some exceptions to this. (See “Limitations” below).

What are the restrictions?

If you live in a particular conservation area or trees that form part of the hedge are under a tree protection ordinance, you may need to get permission from your local authority to trim or remove a hedge. Some plots of land have legal agreements that state both the size and height at which you can grow a hedge, and all other information is usually included on your title deeds. It is also against the law to cut back or remove hedges where birds might nest. You should inspect the hedge first before proceeding with pruning. If you’re still unsure about this, it’s best not to prune the hedge between March and September, just in case.

your duties

Sometimes a hedge can overgrow and overhang the sidewalk in front of your property. In this case, your local authority may force you to trim or even remove it if it poses a hazard or obstruction to pedestrians on the sidewalk.

Until a few years ago, there was no legal limit on hedge heights, but that changed in 2005. If you can’t agree on the hedge, you must file a complaint with your municipality, explaining why you want a limit on the height of a neighbor’s hedge. There is normally a fee for investigating this matter, which is usually around £350, although fees may vary depending on the local authority. Check out our Unhappy with a Neighbor’s Hedge guide here.

Regardless of who owns the hedge, most neighbors on adjacent properties simply tend their side of the hedge. However, it is important to understand the legal position surrounding hedging, just in case a dispute arises.

What to read next…

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Share your story, join the discussion or seek advice.. [add a comment]

Gpmum2 – Jul 24 ’22 @ 1:44 PM I bought my house and there is a large hedge or many types of hedges on the other side of my fence then the sidewalk. It was mentioned that the previous owner planted these hedges. Do I have to take care of them even though they don’t belong to me? They’ve been there for 20 years.

cuuca – Jul 13 ’22 @ 9:27 am So I recently bought a plot of land in the countryside. The property is surrounded by hedges. The paperwork says all borders are my responsibility. I believe this is the old rule as the hedge shared with the neighbor used to be farmland. In my mind, when they bought the land, they should have taken responsibility for cutting the hedge on their side. The neighbor insists that I cut the hedge on their side. Does that sound right? My other option was to pull this hedge up all the way and attach something else as maintaining the hedges on my side is difficult enough without having to do the neighbors as well. Any input welcome

Carol – May 18 ’22 @ 11:19 PM My neighbor had scrub, tree vines and anything growing randomly on our property line all over the place. Well, he sold his house and new owners took it over. I ask him if he would mind if we cut down the bushes on the small trees and anything else that grows on his property line. This starts from the beginning of our driveway to the end of our driveway. This makes getting in and out terrifying. Because these overgrown bushes constantly block my way. He said go ahead and do what you want. I won’t be using that end of the house anyway. I will rent the property. It’s a summer home on the New Jersey shore. I loved it!!!!!!So my husband and I put the crew together and uprooted for two days. Chainsaw mowing, weeding, shoveling, 9 trips to the landfill to get rid of the leaves. Two busy days. Not to mention thorn stings and poison ivy! and a load of weed killer!! It’s finally finished and looks amazing!! The neighbor doesn’t even notice. That was a year ago. This year we are heading down the coast to open our summer home and what do I see…… 6 Azelea bushes planted directly on the property line !!!!!!!!! I am so angry. We’re cleaning up the horrible mess so he can plant more overgrown brush right on the property line. …. The law states that bushes and hedges must be planted 3-5 feet from the property line. What should I do ????

Waffs – May 18 ’22 @ 11:18 PM My neighbor had scrub, tree vines and anything growing randomly on our property line all over the place. Well, he sold his house and new owners took it over. I ask him if he would mind if we cut down the bushes on the small trees and anything else that grows on his property line. This starts from the beginning of our driveway to the end of our driveway. This makes getting in and out terrifying. Because these overgrown bushes constantly block my way. He said go ahead and do what you want. I won’t be using that end of the house anyway. I will rent the property. It’s a summer home on the New Jersey shore. I loved it!!!!!!So my husband and I put the crew together and uprooted for two days. Chainsaw mowing, weeding, shoveling, 9 trips to the landfill to get rid of the leaves. Two busy days. Not to mention thorn stings and poison ivy! and a load of weed killer!! It’s finally finished and looks amazing!! The neighbor doesn’t even notice. That was a year ago. This year we are heading down the coast to open our summer home and what do I see…… 6 Azelea bushes planted directly on the property line !!!!!!!!! I am so angry. We’re cleaning up the horrible mess so he can plant more overgrown brush right on the property line. …. The law states that bushes and hedges must be planted 3-5 feet from the property line. What should I do ????

Waffs – May 18 ’22 @ 11:17 PM My neighbor had scrub, tree vines and anything growing randomly on our property line all over the place. Well, he sold his house and new owners took it over. I ask him if he would mind if we cut down the bushes on the small trees and anything else that grows on his property line. This starts from the beginning of our driveway to the end of our driveway. This makes getting in and out terrifying. Because these overgrown bushes constantly block my way. He said go ahead and do what you want. I won’t be using that end of the house anyway. I will rent the property. It’s a summer home on the New Jersey shore. I loved it!!!!!!So my husband and I put the crew together and uprooted for two days. Chainsaw mowing, weeding, shoveling, 9 trips to the landfill to get rid of the leaves. Two busy days. Not to mention thorn stings and poison ivy! and a load of weed killer!! It’s finally finished and looks amazing!! The neighbor doesn’t even notice. That was a year ago. This year we are heading down the coast to open our summer home and what do I see…… 6 Azelea bushes planted directly on the property line !!!!!!!!! I am so angry. We’re cleaning up the horrible mess so he can plant more overgrown brush right on the property line. …. The law states that bushes and hedges must be planted 3-5 feet from the property line. What should I do ????

Floyd – Mar 23 22 @ 8:34pm Our neighbor has an eight foot hedge in front of his house which blocks any view of Loch Ness but the law says you have no right of view but the good thing is that You have a right to daylight, so if the daylight in your house is decreasing you have the right to complain and they should be forced to remove part or all of the hedge if they have to.

Antes – Aug 11 ’21 @ 5:41 PM What can I do where to report it because it’s impossible to reach an agreement with the neighbor. He cut the bushes and trees that grow on the property he rented and despite togo that I asked him not to do this, he transferred them to my side and destroyed my flowers.

Corky – Aug 9 ’21 @ 4:15pm My mother in law has a 2m high wooden fence. She is 86 years old but next door has a hedge about 4m tall that is starting to grow out of the wooden fence panels and now it gets distorted as winter comes the leaves clog the drains he has his side cut back but will die Don’t touch mother side?

GGeilian – Jul 19 ’21 @ 9:02 am Hello. My neighbor’s hedge spans both of our borders at the back of the semi-detached houses. The hedge belongs to my neighbor but when I was out walking the other day he decided to clip the top (which is already under 2m tall) either side of the border meaning he would have to bend forward to clip the top, that grows on my side . This happened without any conversation. When cutting off the top I’ve never done that and always focused on the part growing on my side as I didn’t find that appropriate even if it’s helpful/less work for the neighbor.

Jungleboy – Jul 18 ’21 @ 5:23 PM Hi, I share a driveway with my neighbors but their hedge is impeding access to my property. Can it be cut during the breeding season if the hedge becomes an obstacle? Thanks Jon

JJ201 – May 27 ’21 @ 2:54 PM There is a tall hedge at the back of my mother’s small cottage garden which borders a farm field. It looks like the hedge is on or just inside the mother’s border. The nextdoor neighbors have no hedge where their garden borders the field. The hedge is about 12 feet high and cuts light from the garden and cottage. The farmer is intimidating and aggressive and threatens legal action if we touch the hedge. He chased off a gardener while trimming the hedge in January. What can we do? ideas please

Hedgehog – Apr 5 21 @ 4:23pm When I moved into my property there was a border wooden fence on my side but I always had to fix the fence as my neighbor was hanging baskets even though I had NOT asked them to do so on the fence and the bushes were overgrown, causing the fence to lean and crack. I continued replacing fence panels with a wall. With wood between the pillars, their landlady told them NOT to put hanging baskets on the wall or put nails etc., which they completely ignore. Last year I contacted the landlady as he had built a trough against the wall and was planting bushes and now what appears to be a tree in a trough that has roots that will grow into the foundation of the wall, although I’m the landlady contacted because i repainted the wood part i noticed that the wood is rotting because he reattached a plastic greenhouse to the wall. I am angry that the landlady has not done anything about this problem and she continues to plant bushes etc in the trough. If there is damage to the wall or wood, I have the right to charge for all cost of repairing the wall and fence

Maggie – Apr 4 ’21 @ 7:39 am I have a townhouse with no access to any street. My neighbor has two conifers, 12 feet tall, next to a dry stone wall that defines our boundaries. I pointed out that this causes problems with the structure of the wall. The only response to my request was a refusal to pay for the distance or even decrease the altitude. I have tried to say that as access to the garden is through the cottages the cost of rebuilding the common wall would be prohibitive. To which the response was “drop the wall, then” I would like to know what steps are open to me to solve the problem. Many Thanks

Gully – Mar 28 ’21 @ 11:06 pm Hello, we have a hedge between me and my neighbor. They cut a tree trunk and now left a hole easily accessible for the neighbor to come into my yard without permission. I wondered what the best way to go about this since I don’t really want to talk to them.

Bins – Jan 14 ’21 @ 17:21 We have an existing yew hedge (about 30 years old) separating our border and farmer’s field. Last year he planted a mixed native hedge with whips about 4 feet from our hedge. Our main concerns are that this new hedge will grow up to 2.5m tall, restricting growth/sunlight and who will be tending our side of the new hedge as the farmer cannot do that with the tractor and flail. He agreed via email that he would remove it and now he has said he will not remove it. Main concern is that it will damage our hedge. Where are we with that?

Quackers – Nov 23 2020 @ 4:17pm There is an access road to an agricultural field on the side of our property. The field is leased to a farmer. Once a year, the property owners trim the hedges with tractors and clippers. This leaves debris all over our yard and driveway. Do the landowners have a legal responsibility to clear away the debris as it is quite a lot and quite thorny. When we were home and the hedges were trimmed, we removed our cars from the driveway to prevent damage. Aren’t property owners obliged to inform us when they carry out such work?

Mark – Nov 16 ’20 @ 3:02 pm I have a hedge at the end of my garden that borders a farmer’s field. There is a contract that contains a clause regarding my obligation to erect and maintain a fence between my land and the field. The farmer says there is a clause in the land registry documentation that says I must erect and maintain a secure fence – although I haven’t seen that clause. Is a hedge a kind of fence? Is there a case where this has been defined? The farmer now says that the fence must be suitable for his needs and it is my job to build the fence.

Swannies100 – Nov 15 ’20 @ 7:35 am We have two problems: Problem 1 Neighbor 1: We have a common 4m high and 3m wide hedge which is the width on our side but our neighbor’s gardener is only trimming to the new one Center opposite the center of the hedge trunks. We can’t get anyone to cut for us and it’s just dangerous. It’s a beech hedge and as it’s semi-evergreen the advice won’t help as they only help with evergreen hedges. They are also refusing to pay the cost of reducing the height and have been verbally abused when approached. Two of these hedge trees have been grown into large trees, these are also connected blocking the light to several gardens. Five years ago, before we moved in, three neighbors got together to have them circumcised (including the previous owner of our house). Neighbor 1 refused to pay anything and argued. The canopy is now recovering and we are losing a lot of light from our garden as well as our neighbors said we could cut down one of the trees (they see joint ownership as one tree is ours and one is theirs). That seems pretty silly, but it is what they believe. Neighbor 2: Literally trying to kill us. Our drive leads directly onto a main road. They have put up a hedge in front of their house and we can’t see the oncoming traffic at all until the whole car is on the street. There is no mirror anywhere that is not on the public road and the council has a mirrors policy prohibiting the use of mirrors on the public road on public liability grounds. They said they will check if there is an accident. I’ve been to my deputy’s and we’ve had a lot of conversations with our neighbors, but they refuse to do anything. They keep the hedge within its limits. We’ve had many, many near misses. When we use our village streets to park we get left notes and one of our car was wrecked. We will literally die. We told the council that if there was an accident we would sue them for complicity as there was something they could have done to help.

Sue – Oct 23 ’20 @ 12:46 am When we bought our house the previous owner had attached a lot of bushes to the fence so it fell off. We put up a new fence and spoke to the lady behind us about plants not belonging on fences and she agreed. She paid half of the neighbor-friendly fence. Then nail some vine plants to all the panels of the fence! I can’t get her to keep her on her side either. They are everywhere on my trees, in the garden, on the patio! What can I do, she should have to pay to clean it up! Throwing that stuff back over the fence doesn’t work.

Lou – Oct 17 ’20 @ 8:23 am Before we bought this house from our neighbor he built a fence on the shore between us inside his boundary, this only came to light once we started planting a hedge in front of it. You’re about one floor higher than us. They agreed to the hedge provided we kept it trimmed to the fence line. Neither the hedge nor the fence follow the original boundary. Some of our hedges may be considered your property. However, they have recently replaced all of the fence panels so I feel they have given up land rights to some extent. Do you agree? My other concern is that even though they know we have a hedge next to the fence line, they just paved/paved the footpath along their side of the fence. If our roots (5 years now) start causing a problem with the pavement, where do we stand?

cd – Oct 13 ’20 @ 1pm my neighbor planted a hedge right on the border of our property without consent I personally do not want another hedge to be cut, I believe a hedge law was passed to allow this avoid and you refer to it in your article. Can you please tell me where I can find this law?

Nutty – Oct 4 ’20 @ 5:03 pm I own a lane my neighbor can use to get to his house. They have a thorn hedge that partially runs down the side of my alley. They cut the hedge, but gradually it widens and narrows the lane, restricting larger vehicles. I mentioned cuts, but so far they have not wanted to do this. Can I cut back the hedge?

simple – Sep 25 ’20 @ 6:22 am We have a garden shed. The neighbor’s grass grows on the long side of the house. This is not a problem. He dug deep into our foundation site and planted large plants/brushwood against our house. I worry that over time they will press into our foundation and the water will seep into the concrete. Any answers for this problem. They are quite hateful neighbors and We TRY not to disturb them. I’ve been here for 16 years and everything was fine until they moved in.

Teedoff – Sep 12 ’20 @ 4:09 am If a landlord grows ivy from his land onto a neighbor’s wall and in his gutters, it must be his responsibility to remove it. The tenant of a residential property is not responsible for trimming or removal. tee

Teedoff – Sep 12 ’20 @ 3:57 am I own a huge old border fence and spent a lot of time and money getting the boards replaced with Douglas fir about fifteen years ago. Four years ago I had to ask my gardener to prune three eight foot wide sections of ivy that emerged above. In a year he reported that the neighbor had told him not to cut it as she was waiting for the wild blackberries inside! They sold her last year but she refused to cut the ivy by the roots before leaving when I politely asked her to. The new neighbors are very helpful and allow my gardener to go in and remove the ivy where possible but it has already destroyed the boards on their side and looks awful to them. Can I sue the previous owner in Small Claims Court for the cost of replacing the ruined floorboards?

Teedoff – Sep 12 ’20 @ 3:49 am I own a huge old border fence and spent a lot of time and money replacing boards with Douglas fir about fifteen years ago. Four years ago I had to ask my gardener to prune three eight foot wide sections of ivy that emerged above. In a year he reported that the neighbor had told him not to cut it as she was waiting for the wild blackberries inside! They sold last year but refused to cut the ivy at its roots before leaving when I politely asked to do so. The new neighbors are very helpful and allow my gardener to go in and remove the ivy where possible but it has already destroyed the boards on their side and looks awful to them. Can I sue the previous owner in Small Claims Court for the cost of replacing the ruined floorboards?

Deedsrule – 7 Sep 20 @ 19:20 Hi I own a property at the end of a patio and my garage is built at the back of the property and the walls match my deeds and Barrat’s maps are the boundary wall with the middle townhouse. The middle townhouse owners have now gone and built an open shed against my garage wall, as well as some tall plant beds with sleepers, they also put 3 plant runners against my garage walls. Unfortunately they never had the courtesy to share this with me or even get me to use the garage wall. Do I have any rights to disagree as my main concern is that they built the plant beds above my garage moisture course, almost 90 cms higher and I fear a lot of moisture will come through in the future. I can share some photos here. Please let me know if you have any advice for us. Thanks again.

FMC – Sep 4 2020 @ 4:12pm My neighbor says he owns the hedge on our border and is in his yard, but he insists I cut the half that is in our yard. do we have to do this We live in Scotland

Thuja123Plicatta – Aug 23 ’20 @ 11:27 AM How close to my established but regularly pruned Thuja Plicatta (Western Red Cedar) hedged trees my new neighbor can erect an enclosed wooden fence, probably over six feet high. The fence blocks the light from the growing trees and the posts have damaged roots. They are not subject to any TPO.

Debs – Aug 9 ’20 @ 8:10 am A laurel hedge separates the rear of our garden from neighbors on an adjacent street. They are new neighbors of about 2 years. There are old posts on either side of our garden, indicating an original fence line. These are now covered by this laurel, which is also interspersed with brambles. It comes from behind her garage and goes unchecked. It entered our yard, destroyed a decorative fence and pressed against our patio. We want to take the laurels off our site and restore the original fence line. They vehemently oppose it. The properties were built in 1933, so the boundaries are not as clear as with more modern properties. I would appreciate any advice. Thank you very much

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If your garden has trees instead of hedges, read our article on your rights to trees and overhanging branches

A garden is a wonderful addition to any home. It can provide a space for relaxation, recreation, and even food production. But what to do when your garden needs more protection?

A picket fence can help keep intruders and animals out, but it’s not always the best option.

A hedge might be better if you want something that still provides privacy in the winter when it’s leafless, or in the summer when it’s too thick to see through. Let’s take a closer look at both options!

The short answer

As a quick recap, hedging can be better if it has the look you want and you’re an avid gardener, but most people are best served with fencing.

The fence remains the same all year round and provides both a visual and physical barrier and can be installed very quickly.

Unless there’s a good reason you want a hedge, we recommend going with a fence, which is a lot less work overall.

security

Fences are usually the cheaper option compared to hedges and can offer excellent security.

Enclosing it with a fence also ensures that the garden is not accessible to intruders or animals.

They also don’t take up space in the garden, giving you plenty of room to play, relax, and even for food production.

Hedges are less secure but still offer a high level of protection against unwanted access to your property

durability

Hedges need frequent maintenance in terms of trimming, pruning and shaping. In winter, when they are leafless, they are much less effective at shielding your garden from prying eyes.

A hedge is more likely to become overgrown and a burden to maintain if left unkempt.

A fence does not need to be maintained in the same way as a hedge, but it does need to be cleaned from time to time and colored if necessary.

The advantage is that it is much more durable than a hedge over the long term, especially if made from pressure-treated wood or similar materials.

privacy

If you want a hedge that gives you plenty of privacy, make sure it’s made up of plants and trees tall enough to protect your yard from prying eyes.

They should also be planted densely to provide maximum coverage while still allowing sunlight through.

A fence can also work well as it is usually made out of wood which is opaque.

A solid fence will also keep out prying eyes, but you need to make sure the posts in your yard are well hidden so they don’t obscure the view!

life span

The lifespan of hedges and fences varies greatly. Some hedge species, such as the Portuguese laurel, can survive for a few decades and typically live to be 25 to 30 years old. Most wooden fences can look good for 15 to 20 years with proper care.

There are also some decorative wooden fences that can only last about 5 to 10 years. It depends on the type of wood and the use.

Pressure treated fence panels typically last about three times longer than untreated ones. Fence posts should be checked regularly for rot to ensure their longevity.

Looks

Which one looks better is really a matter of personal choice. A fence can help you create a more productive garden as it provides the structure that other plants need to grow and thrive.

It also prevents soil erosion and provides support for climbing plants that would otherwise need to be staked or tied

Hedges generally look better in formal gardens, but if you want something less structured, a fence can also work well.

It’s also easier to plant plants on a fence than to create a hedge, giving you more freedom in your choice of vegetation!

seasonality

Unless you choose an evergreen hedge, you need to consider how your garden will look and function in winter.

A fence can be covered with wreaths, ornaments, and even Christmas lights, but a hedge is pretty ugly in winter.

This may not be a problem if the hedge still provides some shade in the summer when it’s leafy, but there’s nothing to protect you from the elements when it’s bare.

Costs

In general, installing a fence costs more than a hedge.

The exception to this is if you want to install a mature hedge from the start. These can be very expensive as they require a number of years of maintenance to reach the correct height.

In the long run, a fence is much more expensive because it needs to be replaced more often than a hedge. A fence also needs to be stained or painted every year, while a hedge really only needs trimming and shaping.

windbreak

If you live in a windy area, a hedge with an overhanging canopy will provide excellent protection for your yard. Hedges can also be planted on the north and west sides of your property to protect the home from damaging winds

Fences are easier to build into windbreaks than hedges, although you will need to ensure they are well secured and staked.

A hedge can also be used as a windbreak, especially if it is tall and dense. It helps prevent damage to the rest of your property by acting like a buffer between your yard and the outside world!

speed

Whatever you want your hedge or fence for, there will be some waiting time once you decide on a hedge.

Many hedge species only grow 30-60 cm per year. So if you buy a small plant, you can wait 2 or 3 years for it to reach a size that will be an effective physical or visual barrier for your garden.

Nature

Hedgerows are attractive to wildlife and insects, providing them with shelter, food and homes.

This isn’t for everyone, but can add charm if there’s more nature if you’re looking.

Pigeons like hedges and often perch in and on them cooing and flapping. If you live near livestock they sometimes eat hedges (as we discovered when cows ate a long laurel hedge we planted) so hedges would be a bad idea in this situation.

maintenance

Maintenance is a cost factor that should be considered before deciding between hedging and fencing.

Hedges require more maintenance as they need regular trimming and shaping to keep them in shape, while fences only need to be stained or painted every few years and cleaned once a year to keep them looking fresh.

However, the time and effort required to trim a hedge is usually much less than the effort involved in coloring a fence.

Another consideration for maintenance is water. Planting a hedge in a wet area or getting constant flooding can kill the hedge.

The same goes for particularly warm weather when your hedge isn’t getting enough water.

Most common hedge styles are fairly hardy and can withstand seasonal changes, but make sure you do your research beforehand!

types of fences

The most common type of garden fence is a closed wooden fence with concrete posts.

There are many different types of fences to choose from, with composite fences becoming increasingly popular due to their long lifespan and maintenance free design.

Read this article to learn more about the different types of garden fences.

Common types of garden hedge

The variety of potential plants that can be used for hedging is overwhelming. Some of the most common types of hedges are: yew, Portuguese laurel, hornbeam and rosa rugosa.

These types of hedging are popular because they look good, grow quickly, and handle the climate well.

A great guide to types of hedging can be found at https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=351

Where can you buy insurance

Most nurseries sell hedges and will usually have someone on hand to help you choose the right hedge for your garden. Read through all of the above considerations and ask questions so you don’t make a costly mistake.

How to install fences

Installing garden fences is hard work, but technically not that difficult. So if you are fit and have some practical knowledge, you can do it yourself.

We have various guides for installing fences such as: B. wooden fences and picket fences.

Conclusion

If you are thinking about your garden and how to make it more private, a fence or hedges can be the answer.

The main difference between these two options is maintenance cost and lifespan: fences need to be painted every few years, while hedges typically only need trimming once a year.

Hedges provide better protection from wind but also take longer to grow than fences, which can be built into any type of barrier for short-term privacy if needed.

If you live near farms where livestock might eat your crops, a hedge would not be an option; Fences, on the other hand, come in many different types, with composites lasting a long time without the need for maintenance.

Think about what’s most important to you before you make that decision!

In this article, we’ll take a look at hedging vs fencing – the pros and cons of both. When considering options for enclosing your yard, two types of hedges and fences will probably come to mind. It’s important to consider the longevity of your screening option and the space you intend to screen.

Hedging vs fencing – the pros and cons

validation

ADVANTAGES OF HEDGE

1. Hedges are cheaper than fences, especially if you have a lot of space to screen off. Hedges are about 50% cheaper than fences and of course it will be a living, growing investment for years to come.

2. Hedgerows also house and protect many types of wildlife. Hedgehogs, invertebrates and birds find space in hedges to nest, eat and raise their young. Many of the hedge varieties bear fruits and berries that are also very nutritious for wildlife.

3. Hedge screens can also provide shade – not just for wildlife, but for people too! They cast shadows from their dense foliage which can be inviting in the summer months!

4. A good, dense hedge can also absorb noise and dust, making the space in your garden a cool, quiet, clean air space to breathe, relax, and enjoy the tranquility.

5. Hedges can also act as incredible windbreakers – the biting winds of the winter months can be reduced by screening off a dense, tightly packed hedge.

6. Of course, hedges are more environmentally friendly than fences. They are a natural product, protect the soil and are an important part of the ecosystem.

7. In some cases, hedging can improve the resale value of your home. It makes your garden more aesthetically pleasing and can serve as a backdrop to showcase other features in your outdoor space.

DISADVANTAGES OF HEDGE

1. Depending on your area, planting a hedge may require a permit from the local authorities.

2. Depending on the size and type of hedging you choose, it may take a few years to reach the desired level. Patience is key when planting a new hedge, but the scheming and patience are worth it!

3. Because hedges are living plants, they grow! If you plant a hedge near your property, you need to be aware that as it grows it could encroach on your property and thus reduce the space around the outside of your home.

4. As in point 3, hedges grow and to keep them in shape and looking good they need regular maintenance. If kept under control with regular trimming and a little grooming, they will provide years of benefit. If they’re allowed to get out of control for a few years, getting them back under control will be a mammoth task.

FENCING

ADVANTAGES OF FENCING

1. Fences are probably the best choice for enclosing small garden areas. Hedges will invade a small garden area and make it look smaller. Fences, on the other hand, keep the space open. And of course, you can screen the fence with climbing shrubs to soften the fence’s appearance.

2. A fence requires little maintenance all year round, unlike a hedge that grows. They will of course require maintenance to ensure they don’t rot or break, but unless you have a large volume of fencing maintenance is relatively easy.

3. Putting up a fence will instantly reward you with the privacy of your garden area where you can relax with friends and family in a safe and secure environment.

4. Fences offer a good return on investment, especially in a small space. A good quality fence should last for many years with little maintenance if properly erected.

DISADVANTAGES OF FENCING

1. If you are putting up your fence in a large space, you may need to check with local authorities to see if you can do this.

2. Fencing is more expensive than hedging – about 50% more expensive. So although you get a good return on your investment, your initial layout will be larger in monetary terms.

3. Fences are less environmentally friendly. Fences are made, so there is one processing element that is notoriously not great for the environment.

4. If you have noisy neighbors or live on a busy main road, don’t expect your fence to protect you from the cacophony! It just doesn’t filter noise! And it can also reflect sound back to your home.

5. Depending on the weather and the foundations of your fence, strong winds can knock it down. Repairing part of the fence is time consuming and often depending on the damage it needs to be replaced entirely.

6. Aesthetics – let’s face it, fences aren’t as attractive as a nice, dense, living hedge! No matter what color you paint it, it’s still a fence, and even if you camouflage it with climbing shrubs, it won’t mimic the beauty of a quality hedge!

So there you have it! Hedging vs Fencing – the pros and cons of hedging vs fencing. We are readyhedgeltd.com – provider of space saving, ready to plant hedge varieties to contractors and the general public. If you have any questions about hedging, please visit our website at www.readyhedgeltd.com

question

How do I cut hedge fences?

Community Response

Use an electric, gas, or manual (scissors) trimmer. You want each hedge to be at least 6 inches back or away from sidewalks, and you want the hedge to be reduced in thickness or depth to no more than 2 feet and no less than 1 foot. If you are rejuvenating an overgrown hedge or turning large bushes into a hedge then just chop away and it will fill in as you retrain the new shape for years to come. Otherwise cut into the desired shape. Try not to make any height above your head to keep the constant work as quick, easy and rewarding as possible.