Why a native hedge is worth the digging

A well-grown hedge does three jobs at once on a smallholding, and it does them for decades. It slows the wind, which reduces the chill factor on your stock and cuts the amount of feed they burn just staying warm. It offers shade in summer and a dry lie-up in winter. And it turns an otherwise bare boundary into a corridor of food and cover for birds, insects, bats and small mammals.

For a UK holding, native species are almost always the right choice. They are adapted to our soils and rainfall, they come into leaf and flower in step with our insects, and bare-root plants bought in winter are inexpensive enough that you can plant a proper length of hedge rather than a token stretch. A hundred metres of good hawthorn costs less than a tonne of hay and will outlast most of us.

The traditional mix, and why it works

The classic British boundary hedge is not a single species but a blend. That variety is what makes it resilient and what makes it valuable to wildlife.

• Hawthorn is the backbone. Roughly 60 to 70 per cent of your plants should be hawthorn. It is tough, quick to establish, thorny enough to be stock-proof, and its May blossom and autumn haws feed everything from bees to redwings.
• Blackthorn makes up another 15 to 20 per cent. It suckers freely, which thickens the base, and its sloes are useful if you fancy gin. It flowers early, on bare branches, which is a lifeline for early bees.
• Hazel adds structure and a taller, softer habit. It responds well to coppicing, and the nuts are a favourite of dormice and jays.
• Field maple, holly, dog rose, guelder rose, spindle and crab apple can fill out the remaining 10 to 15 per cent. Each one adds a different flowering time, berry or autumn colour.

Aim for five to seven species across the run. A hedge with a little of everything is far more useful than a monoculture, and if disease or drought takes one species, the hedge carries on.

Choosing the site and preparing the ground

Plant along the side of the boundary that faces the prevailing wind. In most of the UK that means the west or south-west, but watch your own land for a season before you commit. A hedge of two metres will shelter a strip downwind of roughly ten to fifteen times its height, so a single well-placed run across a paddock can protect a surprising area.

Keep the line at least two metres clear of fences and ditches so you can get a trimmer or a tractor along it later. Mark the line with two canes and a string, then deal with the ground properly.

• Spray off or dig out perennial weeds such as couch and nettle in a strip about a metre wide. Competition in the first two summers is what kills young hedges.
• Plant into a strip of rotavated or hand-dug soil, ideally with a little well-rotted manure worked in. Native hedge plants do not need rich ground, but they do need to get their roots down without a fight.
• Order bare-root plants for delivery between November and March. Plant them within a few days of arrival and keep the roots damp and covered until they go in.

Planting it properly

Use a double, staggered row. Set the rows about 40 centimetres apart and the plants 30 to 45 centimetres apart within each row, which works out at roughly five to seven plants per metre. Staggering gives you a thick, dense base that stock cannot push through.

Plant to the same depth the plants were in the nursery — look for the soil mark on the stem. Firm them in well with your heel, then cut every plant back hard, to about 10 to 15 centimetres. It feels brutal, but it forces the plant to bush out from the base rather than throw up a single weak stem. Water in dry spells through the first two summers, and mulch with bark or straw to hold moisture and suppress weeds.

Protect against rabbits and hares with spiral guards, and against deer with a taller mesh fence if you have them. Nothing is more disheartening than finding a freshly planted hedge nibbled to the ground in February.

Managing it for stock and for wildlife

The first few years are about establishment. After that, a native hedge needs very little, provided you time your cutting well.

• Do not cut between 1 March and 31 August. That is the bird nesting season, and it is also when the hedge is putting on most of its growth. Cutting then is both illegal and counter-productive.
• Trim the sides every second or third year, tapering them so the top is narrower than the base. A sloped face lets light reach the bottom and stops the hedge going bare and leggy.
• Leave the top alone more often than not. Letting it grow to two or three metres gives far more shelter and far more nesting cover than a tightly clipped two-metre box.
• Consider laying a section every ten to fifteen years, or on a rotation along the length. Laying rejuvenates an old hedge, thickens it at ground level, and gives you a stock-proof barrier that will last another generation.
• Leave a few taller thorny trees — holly, hawthorn or crab apple — standing at intervals. They break the wind above the hedge line and give songbirds somewhere to sing from.

If you have the space, plant a second hedge on the opposite boundary a few years later. Between them, the two will shelter the middle of the field, cut your winter feed bill and turn a plain paddock into something worth looking at from the kitchen window.