James Whitaker
Why a native hedge is the best thing you can plant for wildlife
A hedge is the hardest-working feature in any garden or smallholding. It gives birds somewhere to nest out of reach of cats, supplies berries and nuts through the lean months, and acts as a sheltered corridor that lets wildlife move between gardens, fields and woodland without crossing open ground where they are exposed.
A single-species hedge of leylandii or privet does a fraction of that work. A mixed hedge of British natives, by contrast, flowers in succession from February to June, fruits from August to November, and holds a dense tangle of twiggy growth that insects, small mammals and nesting birds all rely on. Hawthorn alone supports more than 150 species of insect in this country — a figure no ornamental shrub comes close to.
Choosing the right mix of species
Think of three or four plants as the backbone and add interest species for diversity. A rough guide for a 10-metre stretch:
- Hawthorn (about 60 per cent) — the classic quickthorn. May blossom, scarlet haws, thorny nesting cover.
- Blackthorn — the earliest blossom for queen bumblebees, then sloes for thrushes and fieldfares.
- Hazel — yellow catkins in February, nuts in autumn, and a favourite of dormice.
- Field maple — good autumn colour, aphid-rich leaves and shelter from wind.
- Dog rose and guelder rose — hips and berries, and a nectar source through summer.
- Crab apple, spindle or wild privet — a scatter of any of these adds variety without costing much.
Buy bare-root whips from a British nursery and ask about provenance. Native stock of local origin is best adapted to your soil and climate.
Planting bare-root: getting it in the ground
Bare-root plants go in between November and March while they are dormant, but avoid working the soil when it is frozen solid or standing wet. Late autumn is ideal — the soil is still warm and roots get a head start before spring.
Clear a strip at least a metre wide first. Dig out perennial weeds such as couch grass, nettle and bramble properly, over two or three sessions if need be; this is the single best investment you will make.
- Plant in a double staggered row: rows 35–40cm apart, plants 40cm apart within each row, alternating positions. This gives roughly six plants per metre of hedge and a thick, dense base.
- Set each whip to the same depth it was growing in the nursery — look for the soil mark on the stem and match it.
- Spread the roots out, backfill, then firm in with your heel so the plant cannot be lifted by a tug on the stem.
- After planting, trim each whip back by about a third. It feels brutal, but it forces bushy growth from the base rather than one spindly leader.
- Mulch with 5–7cm of well-rotted manure or bark, keeping it clear of the stems, and fit spiral guards where rabbits or voles are about.
The first three years: watering and weeding
Young hedges fail far more often from grass and weed competition than from drought. Keep a 45cm-wide strip either side clear of vegetation for the first two or three summers, by hand or with a mulch, and the plants will do the rest. Water thoroughly during dry spells in the first two summers — a full watering can per plant, once a week, is more use than a daily sprinkle.
Do not feed with a high-nitrogen fertiliser. It produces soft, sappy growth that is attractive to aphids and vulnerable to frost. By the third year a well-planted hedge should be self-sufficient, and you can start leaving the grass to grow in.
Cutting and laying: keeping it thick and fruitful
Trim in late winter, and only every second or third year. Annual clipping removes the wood that would have carried next spring's flowers and autumn's berries, so a hedge cut every year gradually becomes a sterile green wall. If you cut on a rotation and leave a third of the hedge uncut each time, there is always blossom and fruit somewhere along its length.
Never cut between March and August — that is nesting season, and it is an offence to disturb the nest of a wild bird. Cut to a slightly A-shaped profile so light reaches the base; a flat-topped, vertical-sided hedge will go bare and gappy at the bottom within a few years. If your hedge is old and leggy, traditional laying every ten to fifteen years rejuvenates it beautifully and produces some of the densest wildlife habitat on any holding.
Leave a metre or two of rough, tussocky grass along the base. Those tussocks are where insects overwinter, and where field voles and shrews live. Resist tidying the leaf litter.
Connecting it to the wider landscape
A hedge is worth more the longer it is. If you can, run yours until it meets an existing hedgerow, a wood, a ditch or a stream, so that wildlife can travel the whole length without breaking cover. Leave the occasional gap at a corner, or a hedgehog-sized hole under a gate, so that ground-dwelling animals are not walled out.
What can you expect? Dunnocks, robins and blackbirds nesting low down within a year or two; whitethroats and yellowhammers once the hedge is tall and thick. Redwings and fieldfares stripping the haws in a hard January, bullfinches taking the buds, and bats working the hedge line at dusk. Hedgerows take a few years to come into their own, but they go on giving for decades — and there are few afternoons better spent than planting one.
