Hedging your bets (or betting your hedges)

If you will pardon the french, Hawthorn is the dog’s b*****ks of a hedge plant. Most of the hedges near us (be they hawthorn, beech, whatever) come from us - not surprisingly as Ashridge Trees sells over 2 million plants a year of which a large proportion end up in hawthorn hedges.

With the possible exception of yew, no other hedge plant has the dignity and good temper of hawthorn.  It is almost unflappable.

Tags: Hawthorn, Hedging

If you have a small hedge, do it by hand, but if you have a larger hedge (or hedges) to keep tidy, then you will make your life easier with a power hedge trimmer tool rather than a hand tool. The choice then is between the relatively expensive but more powerful petrol hedge trimmers or the cheaper but weaker electric ones. Try to let the jobs the machine has to do determine your buying decision.

Tags: Hedging

Almost any plant, provided it is woody and does not mind a bit of competition and being cut back occasionally can be used in a country hedge. But that does not make it a great native hedging plant. I have, honestly, seen a hedge made entirely from Ash. Interesting idea, but utterly useless.

Here are my top ten native hedging plants:

1. Hawthorn - Crataegus monogyna
2. Blackthorn - Prunus Spinosa
3. Field Maple - Acer campestre

Tags: Hedging

Continuing the theme of why hedging is, as 1066 and All That would have said, a thoroughly Good Thing.

Sitting in the garden yesterday (before the rain) we played a drinking game where you paid a forfeit if you could not think of something to do with hedges and high life or low life.  Here are a few of the more sensible thoughts:

• It is tough to paint graffitti on a hedge (and even if someone succeeds, it grows away all by itself (geddit)

Tags: Hedging