Native Country Hedging Plants

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What is a Native Country Hedge?

This section is not our full range of native plants, only the native plants that are commonly used in farm hedges.

Country hedging for farms consists of rugged hedge plants that are the backbone of the rural landscape: extremely tough, easy to maintain & repair, secure against intruders, and great for wildlife. 

The two most important country hedge plants are Hawthorn and Blackthorn, which you can buy in mixed packs that qualify for Countryside Stewardship grants. 

Farm hedges are multipurpose boundary markers, stock proof barriers, windbreaks, nature refuges, and also decorative features.
They are also great for urban gardens: a well clipped native hedge is too twiggy to see through in Winter.

Classic country hedge plants are hard pruned by 50-60% after planting, which is not done to the hedge plants that are typically used for the garden, including natives such as Yew and other conifers, Beech, Hornbeam, or Holly.

In contrast to formal evergreen hedges, they are almost all deciduous (a bit of Holly is the main exception, which is not part of standard country hedge mixes), and are trimmed once, maybe twice per year without as much regard for perfectly straight lines. 

In the countryside, most farm hedges are pruned with a tractor attachment called a flail, which is a wood chipper on a long mechanical arm.
Modern equipment is quite precise, allowing for a cut that leaves about 2-3 inches of growth per year to maximise flowering, not cutting back to the same point every year. 

• Uses: Informal and stock-proof hedges from 100cm upwards.

• Good Points: Native, cheap, very easy to maintain, great for wildlife

• Position: Almost anywhere. Tolerates poor drainage and dappled shade.

Many native hedge plants are also planted for forestry, and are available as larger trees.

How many Country hedge plants do I need?

The planting density for your native Country hedge depends on the purpose:

• For a normal garden boundary hedge, plant at 3 plants per metre (every 33cm) in a single row.
• A stock-proof country hedge (which qualifies for the B11 Planting New Hedges Grant) requires 2 staggered single rows (i.e. start one row 16.5cm after the other), with 40cm between rows. That works out at 6 plants per metre in total. 
• An interior hedge for purely decorative purposes can be planted at 2 plants per metre (every 50cm) in a single row.

What size Country hedge plants should I buy?

• If you are not in a hurry to get a full sized country hedge, we recommend starting with the smallest sizes, typically 40/60cm tall.
• If you are in a hurry and need instant impact, or are filling gaps in an existing hedge, then of course pick the biggest size that fits your budget.

Smaller plants are cheaper, easier to plant, and tend to establish better because they are dug up with most of their roots intact.
You can also clip them attentively and ensure a very bushy plant from the base up.

If you still aren't sure, then 60/80cm tall is considered the ideal compromise between price, size, and waiting time until you get a mature hedge.  

Your mail order native hedge plants are delivered by next working day courier.
If there is anything wrong with your plants when they arrive, Contact Us within 5 working days, and our friendly support team will sort it out.

All bareroot plants are covered by our Refund Guarantee, so you can give them a whirl with complete confidence.

• Mixed native country hedging is the most common type of UK hedge
• Most wildlife & bee value
• Extremely tough plants when established
• Can grow anywhere

Countryside Stewardship Grant Hedges

You can design your own native hedge from the plants in this category, but you'll save time & money with our ready-made native hedge packs of 50 and 250 plants, which all qualify for Countryside Stewardship Hedge Grants, when planted in a double row at 6 per metre.

Horse Friendly Hedging: Safe for Cattle

Our Livestock Friendly Hedge Packs contain the best hedge plants for horses and livestock in the UK. They also qualify for Countryside Stewardship grants.

These packs contain no blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), which has long thorns that can harm large livestock, especially horses.

• Blackthorn is primarily a risk to horses when they run alongside or jump over blackthorn hedges during activities like hunting, not so much when blackthorn is used around their paddock and cut every year.
• In large quantities, Blackthorn is poisonous to horses, but again this risk is not significant when the horse has good pasture, and the hedge is cut yearly. 
• Blackthorn is a traditional choice for enclosing sheep due to its dense growth from the base, which is ideal for stopping escape-artists from wriggling out the bottom; we sell a Blackthorn based hedge mix for this purpose. 

Ideal hedge plants for Horses and Livestock

• Hawthorn
• Cherry Plum
• Crab Apple
• Common Dogwood & Red Dogwood
• Field Maple
• Guelder Rose
• Hazel
• Wild Roses
• Wayfaring Tree

Can I Grow Country Hedging in the City?

Yes! You can grow "country" hedges in urban areas, polluted industrial zones, your office car park: pretty much anywhere.
Depending on the mix, they can be thorny or thornless, contain edible fruits, and in general offer a wide array of flowers and Autumn colour.    

What are the UK's Native Evergreen Hedge Plants? 

The UK's native evergreen hedge plants are:

• Yew
• Holly
• Box
• Ivy can turn a fence into a hedge  
• Wild Privet is semi-evergreen in most of the UK, close to fully evergreen in a warm, sheltered, Southern English gardens

Wild privet is the only standard farm hedge plant that you might find in a hedge pack, but the others may be found volunteering from seed in old hedges, happily growing beside their deciduous neighbours. 

Which Country Hedge Plants Should I Choose?

Mixed or single variety? 
In the past, farm hedging was mostly made out of one species, typically Hawthorn, or Blackthorn, or Hazel, and on traditional Devon Banks, beech is preferred, but it is a bit more expensive. 

Single species country hedges work perfectly well and costs less, with hawthorn being cheapest.

However, for wildlife conservation purposes, mixed hedges have become the norm, which typically include 50% to 70% hawthorn, and the rest a mix of native trees and shrubs like dogwood, field maple, guelder rose, wayfaring tree, crab apple, and wild rose.

Design your own Country Hedge

To make your own country hedge mix, you could start with either of our Hawthorn based mixes: the farmer's country hedge mix (packs of 250 plants, 4 species, best value) or our conservation hedge mix (packs of 50 plants, 6 species, also great value) and add plants from the list below, or you go freestyle and make up your own mix entirely:

Classic "Backbone" Country Hedge Plants

These provide the most structure and strength, so consider using them for half or more of the hedge.

• Hawthorn is the king, planted as much as all other country hedging species put together.
• Blackthorn is bushier at the base and so contains escape-artist sheep better, but it does need a decent amount of sun.
• Hazel is very vigorous, and it performs much better than the others in wet, shady places.

Other Great Country Hedge Plants

• Crab Apple & Wild pear great pollinators of orchards, feeds wildlife. 
• Field Maple pretty young red tinted foliage, fabulous gold autumn leaves.
• Guelder Rose viburnum, Britain's most beautiful native shrub. Pom-pom white flowers, stunning autumn foliage, showy red berries.
• Wild Privet great for birds. Semi-evergreen.
• Wild Hedging Roses: Dog rose and Sweet Briar Rose are the best: nature's barbed wire! Showy red hips in winter.
• Spindle pink & orange seeds.
• Wayfaring Tree viburnum, lovely autumn tints, strings of red and black berries deep into winter.
• Common Dogwood or Red Dogwood, even more wildlife value, and a bit of extra Autumn & Winter colour.

Optional Extras

These need a bit of extra management to control them so they don't take over, but they have edible flowers and/or fruit, so it may be worth it:

• Brambles (Wild Blackberry): Once they have established, cut them down at the base every few years to keep them in check - an Irish Slasher is a great tool for this. 
• Elderflower / Elderberry: Over time it develops a wide, woody base that pushes out its neighbours, so it's often considered as a weed in hedges, but when placed at the ends or corners it won't cause much trouble, and will provide you with delicious flowers for cordial and nutritious fruit for making syrup. 

More Edible Fruit

Soft fruit like raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries and currants all do well in a sunny hedgerow, and make a nice touch beside a gate.

Stockproof Country Hedges

Our stock-friendly hedge mix is blackthorn-free, which is safest for horses and cows.
To make it stockproof for sheep, add blackthorn and/or more wild roses, which thicken up the base. 

Where Can I Grow a Country Hedge?

You can grow a country hedge practically anywhere apart from underwater, in pure sand, or in really full shade.
These native plants have been tried and tested for centuries on working farms, so they do the job!

If you have a wet location with very little direct sunlight, consider using Hazel over Hawthorn, as it is more vigorous: Hawthorn will grow in the shade, but slower.
Wild privet is also good in the shade, but prefers a bit of drainage.

Where all else fails, elderflower may not be the nicest looking hedge plant, especially in winter, but it will grow anywhere outdoors in the UK: dry sandy soil, sticky clay, acidic bogs, on top of a brick wall, it doesn't care.
It won't flower much or look pretty in full shade, but it will still grow.

When and How do I Plant a Country Hedge?

Country hedges are planted bareroot in the winter planting season, from November to March.

Follow our video on how to plant a country hedge.
For a natural looking native hedge, we recommend mixing the plants randomly and planting them without paying attention to what is going next to what.

Spacing: Plant at 3 plants per metre, 33cm apart in a single row.
If you have livestock, or are making a hedge for horse jumping, 6 plants per metre in a staggered double row will make a solid barrier.

You will need spirals and canes if you have rabbits nearby, and we always recommend using Rootgrow. 

Water very well after planting and make sure the soil does not dry out completely in the first spring and early summer.
Keep the ground under your new hedge clear of weeds until the plants cast enough shade to prevent weed growth themselves.
Use an organic mulch after planting, or plant through Mypex fabric as shown in the film.
 

When and How do I Trim and Prune my Native Country Hedge

Country hedge plants are very tough and can be trimmed and pruned at any time. 

The best time to trim new hedges is in Autumn or Winter when they are dormant, to encourage the most vigorous regrowth the following year. 

The first pruning:

Immediately after planting, cut your new hedge plants in half. That's right: chop off 50% of the total height. This is essential for creating a lot of low side branches.
Otherwise, your hedge will quickly get sparse at the base and top-heavy.

The first winter after planting:

The following winter, cut back all the new growth by 50%. You will clearly be able to see the difference between the more colourful bark of the new growth, and the thicker, less vivid wood from the previous year. 

When your plants come into growth the following spring, each one should have at least 8 or 9 low branches, which are the foundation of a thick hedge. 

Trimming in subsequent years:

Clip the sides when they are shaggy, and the top as you see fit: once a year is enough, twice is also fine.

Autumn and Winter is the traditional season to trim, when there are no nesting birds.

How to Keep your Country Hedge Flowering:

The trick to ensure lots of flowers and then fruit or nuts every year is to always leave at least an inch of the current season's new growth.
The following year, it will be two years old wood, which is the most productive for flowers & then fruit. 
If you keep cutting back to the exact same level every year, the remaining wood will get older and less productive. 

This management technique means that your hedge will slowly expand over the years, so every decade or two it will need to be hard pruned back into place (this is often a good occasion to lay the hedge as well). 

Assuming that you are not laying the hedge (in which case you would hard prune all over), you can minimise disruption to wildlife by hard prune the sunniest side on one year, and the shadiest side the second year. 

How can I guess the age of an old hedge?

There are hedgerows that were planted before the Battle of Hastings in 1066, although the individual plants in them are the descendants of the originals.

It was once the case that the more species variety there was in a hedge, the older it was likely to be. 
Ancient hedges were originally all one species (usually Hawthorn, or Hazel, or Blackthorn, according to region), and over time, seeds of other species came to grow in old and patchy parts. 

However, that guess-timation method is no longer useful now that mixed hedges have been encouraged for so many decades.