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 graffiti 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 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.
• They can hide bad neighbours and disgusting eyesores

Watch your plants grow, and enjoy!