06 July 2024

"Laying a hedge"

 For my gardening Zoom group I recently browsed In a Unicorn's Garden: recreating the mystery and magic of medieval gardens.  There I encountered the phrase "laying a hedge" and had to look it up...

10 comments:

  1. The commentator is named Roy Hay.

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  2. Impressive. And all the while, he's smoking his pipe. Is that a necessity while making a hedge?

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  3. I have a vague memory that maybe HerdyShepherd on Twitter was doing something like this a while back? I'm not on Twitter any more, and I don't think he is either. I miss him and his tales of his farm and livestock and kids.

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  4. I do urge you all to watch Clarkson's Farm on Amazon; I have never been a fan of his bombastic style, but being a struggling farmer has softened his edge, say by about 3%. But more importantly, I feel that he is doing a good job of illustrating the huge challenges of being a farmer, and educating folks whilst entertaining them. And sometimes making one cry. He has a segment on a hedge laying competition, S2E6, that was simply amazing.

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  5. I'm surprised the vertical stakes he drove in the ground to weave the horizontal sticks through didn't go far into the ground. I suppose once all that material is woven they just have to stabilize the row so the wind doesn't blow it over.
    xoxoxoBruce

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  6. Pleaching Hedgerows with Billhooks - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWyHDXEfklo 58:32 How Sloe Gin Was Made In 1910 | Edwardian Farm EP3 | Absolute History

    Pleaching or plashing is a technique of interweaving living and dead branches through a hedge for stock control. Trees are planted in lines, the branches are woven together to strengthen and fill any weak spots until the hedge thickens. Branches in close contact may grow together, due to a natural phenomenon called inosculation, a natural graft. Pleach also means weaving of thin, whippy stems of trees to form a basketry effect.

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    Replies
    1. https://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2019/03/pleaching-plashing-and-pruning-updated.html

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  7. If you are on Instagram: westcountry_hedgelayer is the account to follow.

    https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyFpcPaKMgD/?igsh=bHJyNWlsMGlhaTJ5

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  8. Here in New England, we have dry stone fences. I wonder why hedges did not come over with the Puritans?

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