Why a Native Hedge Beats a Fence

A good hedge does three jobs at once: it shelters, it feeds and it connects. Planted along a boundary, a mixed native hedge filters wind rather than stopping it dead. A solid wall or close-board fence forces wind up and over, then drops it in a buffeting curl just beyond. A hedge with a little porosity through it slows the wind instead, and the calm pocket on the sheltered side can extend ten to fifteen times the hedge's height — for a two-metre hedge, that is a genuinely useful stretch of garden or paddock protected from the worst of the winter blast.

Then there is the living side of it. A mixed native hedge is larder, nesting site and corridor in one, and it will quietly outperform almost anything else you could plant for wildlife.

The Three Workhorses: Hawthorn, Blackthorn and Hazel

If you build your hedge from only three species, make them these. They are tough, cheap as bare-root whips, and between them they cover food, cover and shelter right through the year.

• Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) — the backbone. Quick to establish, fiercely thorny and utterly dependable. May blossom feeds early bees and hoverflies, the deep red haws in autumn are stripped by redwings, fieldfares and blackbirds, and the tangled twigs are where dunnocks, wrens and whitethroats build. Aim for roughly half your plants to be hawthorn.
• Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) — the early one. Its white flowers open on bare stems in March, often the first real nectar of the year, and the sloes follow in autumn. It suckers freely, knitting the base of the hedge into an impenetrable thicket, and it is the caterpillar food plant of the brown hairstreak butterfly.
• Hazel (Corylus avellana) — the useful one. Catkins in late winter dust pollen about for early insects, and the nuts in September are prized by dormice, squirrels and nuthatches. Hazel coppices beautifully, so it can be cut hard every few years for bean poles and pea sticks — and the regrowth keeps the hedge thick.

Add a little guelder rose, dog rose or field maple if you have room, but the trio above will do the heavy lifting.

Siting and Spacing Your Hedge Line

Choose the boundary that takes the prevailing wind — in most of the UK, the west or south-west — and run the hedge along it, ideally with a strip of rough grass left at the foot. Native species cope with most soils, but they sulk in waterlogged ground; if yours holds water, plant on a slight ridge of soil or improve the drainage first. Full sun is a bonus rather than a requirement, though a hedge in good light will flower and berry far more heavily.

For a boundary you can trim to about two metres, plant in a double, staggered row: 30 to 45 centimetres between plants, with the two rows roughly 40 centimetres apart. It looks extravagant on day one — a line of bare sticks — but it closes up within three seasons and gives you the dense base that makes a hedge good for nesting. Alternate the species along the row rather than planting them in blocks.

Planting Bare-Root Whips in Winter

Bare-root whips are cheap, light and quick to establish, and the season runs from November to March, so long as the ground is neither frozen nor standing in water.

• Clear a metre-wide strip of grass and weeds, and soak the roots well before planting.
• Plant into a slit or shallow trench at the same depth the whips were grown — look for the soil mark on the stem.
• Firm the soil around the roots with your heel, then water generously.
• Mulch with bark or well-rotted manure, keeping it clear of the stems themselves.
• Guard against rabbits with spiral guards, and fence against deer or livestock where needed.

The First Three Years — and the Cut That Follows

Water well through the first two dry summers and keep the base clear of competing grass for at least three years. After planting, cut the whips back by about a third. It feels brutal, but it builds a thick-bottomed hedge rather than a row of thin poles.

Once established, trim once a year in late winter, before the birds nest. Shape the sides so the hedge is slightly wider at the base than at the top; letting light reach the bottom keeps it leafy rather than bare and woody. If you can, leave a section uncut each year, or trim only every second or third winter, so there is always some blossom, berry and standing seed for wildlife. And if you have the space and the patience, nothing improves an old hedge like laying it.

A Year in the Hedge

• Late winter — hazel catkins, the year's pruning, the first investigations of nesting birds.
• Spring — blackthorn first, then hawthorn blossom, with bees and hoverflies working both.
• Summer — dense shade and safe cover, whitethroats and dunnocks deep in the thick of it.
• Autumn and winter — haws and sloes, flocks of redwings and fieldfares, and a boundary that stands up to the gale.

Plant it well, leave it a little untidy, and it will repay you for decades.