Creating a Wildlife-Friendly Hedge in Your Garden

Why a Native Hedge Beats a Fence

A clipped native hedge does three jobs at once: it marks your boundary, it shelters your garden from wind, and it turns a strip of ground into a small nature reserve. A panel fence offers none of that. Thorny species such as hawthorn and blackthorn make a boundary that is genuinely difficult to push through, while nesting birds, moths, bees and small mammals use the same plants for food, cover and hibernation. Best of all, a hedge planted this winter will be cropping haws, sloes, hazelnuts and rosehips within a few years — the beginning of many a hedgerow preserve.

The Pick of British Native Hedging

You need a mix, not a monoculture. Different species flower and fruit at different times, which keeps wildlife fed through the year.

• Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) — the backbone of any British hedge. Dense, thorny, quick to establish, with frothy May blossom and autumn haws.
• Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) — suckering and fiercely spined, so it makes a stock-proof thicket. White flowers on bare wood in March, then sloes in October.
• Hazel (Corylus avellana) — coppices well, catkins in February, and nuts in September if the squirrels allow.
• Field maple (Acer campestre) — handsome golden autumn colour and superb aphid habitat for blue tits.
• Dog rose (Rosa canina) — scrambling stems and fat red hips that last well into winter.
• Guelder rose (Viburnum opulus) — lacy white flowers, translucent red berries, brilliant autumn foliage.
• Holly, crab apple, spindle and wild privet — all worth adding for berried winter interest.

An eight-to-ten species mix gives you the widest range of flowering times, berry crops and nesting sites.

Planting It Properly

Bare-root plants are cheap, establish faster than potted stock and should be planted between November and early March, while they are dormant. Avoid waterlogged or frozen ground.

• Clear a strip at least 60cm wide of grass and perennial weeds. Grass competition kills young whips.
• Plant in two staggered rows, 40cm between plants and 45cm between rows. This gives the density you want — roughly five plants per metre.
• Fork the base of each planting hole, add a handful of garden compost, and set the plant at the same depth it was growing before.
• Firm in well, then mulch with bark or well-rotted manure, keeping it clear of the stems.
• Fit spiral guards against rabbits and voles, and stakes if the site is windy.
• Water through the first two summers. After that, established hedging usually looks after itself.

On heavy clay or exposed sites, add a little grit to the planting hole and consider a windbreak of brash for the first season.

Cutting for Wildlife, Not Tidiness

The single biggest mistake is reaching for the hedge trimmer every August. Between March and August, hedges are full of nesting birds, and it is an offence to disturb them. Cut in late winter instead, ideally February, before the sap rises and before nesting begins.

Trim on a slight A-shape — wider at the base — so light reaches the bottom and the hedge does not go bare and leggy. Cut the sides on a rotation: one side one year, the other the next, or leave the whole hedge for two to three years between cuts. A looser, fruit-laden hedge feeds far more wildlife than a tightly shaved one. Where you have room, leave a stretch unclipped entirely for sloes and hips.

A Hedge That Feeds You

Plant with the kitchen in mind and your hedge becomes a larder. Haws make a fruity, slightly apple-ish ketchup and a lovely deep-red jelly to serve with game. Sloes need a frost — or a night in the freezer — before they go into sloe gin, and the same fruit makes a superb hedgerow jelly with crab apples. Rosehips are the classic for syrup, strained slowly and never boiled hard. Hazelnuts can be picked green in late summer or dried for winter baking. Crab apples set beautifully because of their natural pectin, so they are the ideal partner for any low-pectin fruit.

Label your jars, keep notes on what fruited well, and you will soon know which parts of the hedge to leave alone and which to pick from hard.

Forage With Care

Pick only from your own hedge, or where you have the landowner's permission. Never dig up wild plants — that is illegal under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 — and never take from protected nature reserves. Leave at least half the berries for the birds, and remember that the same crop you fancy is a blackbird's winter survival. Plant well, prune lightly, harvest kindly, and a hedge planted this winter will be feeding your garden's wildlife, and your preserving pan, for decades.