Monthly Archives: August 2008

Hedges and Life (Low and high)

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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)
  • Without hedges just about the only birds in your gardens would be pigeons, jackdaws and the like.  No nests, no songbirds and none of those little friends with bright eyes who eat garden pests while you are weeding or digging.
  • Ever tried to push your way through an established thorn hedge? Even in a leather jacket?  Not easy – much harder than climbing a wall or a fence.
  • When we had run out of things to say, or were maybe too drunk, and we all quietened down, you could see animal traffic in the hedge that runs across the end of our garden and into our neighbours.  Hedges are to small animals what pavements are to pedestrians. Safe places to walk.
  • Hedges provide shelter to animals (and humans) – they are excellent windbreaks and provide frost protection in severe weather.
  • They are a mini-ecosystem and so to a large extent they are self sustaining, feeding and supporting a range of life without costing the earth.
  • Oh yes, a visiting friend tried did an impersonation of a thief trying to escape with a bag of swag through a hedge we had planted up four years ago using a Conservation Hedge  mix.  Amazing how fast spindly looking little plants make a barrier a bull could not get through.  Great entertainment, but the swag never made it out of the garden.

Watch your plants grow, and enjoy!

In the beginning…. there was Hedging

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I suppose this should have started nearer the beginning – Ashridge Trees is our business. We grow and sell about 2 million shrubs and trees a year. We have a huge range of hedging plants and hedge shrubs. I suppose you could say we major on hedging. But we also grow and sell ornamental and fruit trees, and we have a widening range of soft fruit. Oh, nearly forgot – and just about every hedging related planting accessory you can think of.

Our speciality is supplying bare-rooted plants – that is plants with no soil around their roots when you (the customer) get them. There are many plusses (pluses?) to bareroot stock. It is grown in open ground (i.e. a field), not in a pot, which means the plants tend to be larger, healthier and never get pot bound. They are much lighter (no soil) which means you can carry 500 hedging plants under one arm across a muddy field (try carrying 500 of the smallest potted plants in one go…), they are easier to handle and they can be planted much faster.

Some plants such as holly, escallonia and griselinia can’t be sold bare-rooted as they die in minutes so we do a little bit of pot grown stuff as well. At this time of year it tends to be softer and tastier than the field grown plants – hence the bloody rabbits.

to be continued….

Remedying a Tree that is Falling Over

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It crossed my mind this morning that we are in August. September is the other month of the equinox (exactly half a year away from Shakespeare’s “Beware the Ides of March”). March and September are the months where the Earth tilts just more than halfway to or from the Sun. So September and March are the months where gales are most likely and trees are most at risk of being blown over.

I hope this does not happen to you, but if it does, here is how you can save a leaning tree (…and you might want to take preventative action on trees that are leaning now). By the way, if the tree falls over, cut it up for firewood – it cannot be saved. These instructions only apply to trees that are LEANING


1. You need to stabilize the tree (stop it from leaning more). The best way to do this is by propping it up. Anything long enough and strong enough will do.  Your local friendly engineering workshop will make you up a Y shaped prop, or you can use a stout bit of timber (cut down floor or roof joist from a skip, 3″x3″ fence post, something like that). An Acrow prop would be the best if you can get one – incredibly strong and capable of being made longer or shorter while in position.

Ideally you want to give the prop a foundation, so it does not drive into the soil under the weight of the tree. Obviously a concrete footing is best, but a paving slab will do the job, even a large rock. The prop needs to be as close to right angles to the trunk of the tree as possible and held really tightly by the foundation. Concrete does this all by itself.  For anything else jam the prop in by hitting its base towards the bottom of the tree so it slides across and then gets stuck on the foundation.

2. Ideally in winter (but if the tree is leaning badly do it now) completely cut out one of the large branches that is causing the tree to lean. This reduces the weight that is causing the tree to lean. You can do another the year after and so on. This winter or next spring, prune the side AWAY from where the tree is leaning and prune it [B]hard[/B].

Sounds mad, but it will cause new growth on the “good” side which will help stop it falling over.

3. As a minimum, the tree should stabilise and more root will form away from the direction it is leaning which will anchor it. If it is relatively small, you can gradually force it upright as the tree reshapes. Keep on pushing it up and in a few years it will be vertical.

But let’s hope the winds don’t blow.

Watch your plants grow, and Enjoy!

Hedging as an Investment Strategy

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It crossed my mind, following my negative equity brainwave post that some comparative costing would be informative.

In absolute terms a 50 metre run of mixed country hedge plants would cost about £80 plus VAT.  It would take one unpracticed person less than a day to plant.  Other than clipping its maintenance costs are about zero and it should last for at least 100 years ( a yew hedge costs more, but can last ten times as long).

For the accountants amongst you an opportunity cost approach (namely what do I lose/could have instead if I plant a hedge) is instructive.

The same length of panel fencing, including the necessary uprights, but ignoring concrete or ground spikes would be £875 plus VAT and not counting labour.  And one unpractised person would never get it done in a day (or two). Without any disrespect to the large discount chain I got the pricing from, your fence would be lucky to last 10-15 years.

Don’t even think about brick (or stone) – the same run would cost you at least £12,000 and would probably not last as long as the hedge unless it got re-pointed once or twice over the next 100 years.

And I have not even mentioned graffiti (unlike brick walls I see all over the place, you do not get it on hedging).

Watch your plants grow and enjoy.