Bet on your hedges

There’s a renewed energy for managing and planting hedgerows across Britain, but what makes a good hedge and why are they so important?

- LUCY HIGGINSON

How many different reasons there are to enjoy a hedge. Whether it’s to drink in its shade on a summer’s walk, comb its foliage for sloes or damsons in autumn, or – my own favourite – watch a horse browsing for rosehips, young hawthorn, cow parsley or hazel, a hedgerow brings pleasure in abundance.

While we all have our own idea of ‘the perfect hedge’, that picture will be coloured by what you want it for: to obscure a neighbour’s trampoline; keep cattle in your fields; attract songbirds; or, simply, as in my case, to go flying over in hot pursuit of hounds.

Most of us know the value of hedgerows to wildlife and the environment, acting as corridors, larders and weather shields for species ranging from hedgehogs to dormice and cattle to bats. Less well known, perhaps, is their value in preventing soil erosion, improving pollination or helping with pest control, reducing the need for pesticides.

Since ripping hedgerows out to make way for prairie-like arable fields was long ago outlawed, the issue for hedgerows more recently has been lack of maintenance. “Hedges love being managed in rotation – being regularly trimmed and coppiced, and laid once every 40 years or so,” explains Megan Gimber of the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES).

But management can end up being neglected or overzealous – for example, hacking back too aggressively each year with a flail – not least because it’s labour intensive and pricey. The result can be hedges that become “thin and leggy, shading out the base”, explains Gimber.