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Hedge laying

  • 20-01-2022 10:11pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 7,981 ✭✭✭


    Got a hedge which has lots of gaps at the bottom and need tidying.

    Has anyone got hedge similar to this sorted and how did they go about doing it?

    Was thinking of getting it layed, but not sure about the expense and availability of people to do it.

    Options?



Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 2,031 ✭✭✭Who2


    It mightn’t be the right way but I have done this by just trimming back what’s there. Throw in a bit of clay into spots that may be tramped down. Make sure it’s fenced off on at least one side, I have a buck rake prong I drive into the ground to make a bit of a hole. Push down a white thorn quick and stick my heal into the sides of it. To tighten the clay around it. Nip the quick back to about twelve inches and seems to work fine.

    every so often I might feel extravagant and plant a beech plant if I have some. I’ll be honest I don’t weed around them or do much maintenance but most seem to go on grand.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,128 ✭✭✭standardg60


    First thing is to make sure the hedge is narrower at the top than the bottom.

    You get gaps if not as the light doesn't get to the lower branches and they drop their leaves.

    You don't need to be an expert to lay a hedge either. Just cut a main branch either side of the gap half way through so that it leans down into the gap. It will Soon heal itself and grow away



  • Registered Users Posts: 7,981 ✭✭✭funkey_monkey


    Can a hedge cutter get at the opposite side of a hedge without putting the tractor balance at risk?



  • Registered Users Posts: 10,983 ✭✭✭✭wrangler


    A decent contractor will have is tractor weighted on the opposte side or have a bigger tractor to enable him to let the hedgecutter out full, The best idea for a heavy ditch is a track machine with a saw head, they're able to put the ditch which ever way you want it to fall



  • Registered Users Posts: 7,981 ✭✭✭funkey_monkey


    Far side of hedge is difficult to get access to.

    I just want was the gaps filled and in reality it is not in bad shape. Current hedge is spaced at approx every metre, so not within our current guidelines which is about 5 - 6 slips per metre. Not sure if intermediate slips had failed or were not planted.

    At this stage, I don't know whether laying it or adding slips would be the best and most financially beneficial option. Alternative is to apply for a restoration grant and/or batter it down with hedge cutter in the intervening time.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 5,054 ✭✭✭bogman_bass


    Hedge laying Ireland have a workshop on Tuesday for those so inclined



  • Registered Users Posts: 32 matt.v


    A few years back a friend of my fathers said he'd lay a hedge for us and ended up killing off more than half of it (copper beech), so I'd be a little wary. I have zip tied neighbouring branches together to fill a gap before and it works just as good. Make sure to trim the top of the hedge to encourage side branching too.

    I wouldn't go in with new slips at this stage because they'd find it hard to establish, would probably end up very straggly...



  • Registered Users Posts: 326 ✭✭hirondelle


    Beech isn't really known for it's ability to be laid- hawthorn is ideal for it in terms of being able to regrow with only a bit of the cambium (green bit inside the bark) remaining. The downside with laying hawthorn is that it is extremely painful!



  • Registered Users Posts: 884 ✭✭✭leoch


    wat would u guys recommend to lay a new hedge in garden between me and neighbors i was thinking grisalenia does it grow thick and quick its being planted into new soil



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  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 8,967 Mod ✭✭✭✭greysides


    Beech mixed with Holly, all year round colour - the drab brown looks well with the shiny dark green in winter.

    Griselinia to my mind, is the wrong colour green in an Irish setting.

    The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory, but progress. Joseph Joubert

    The ultimate purpose of debate is not to produce consensus. It's to promote critical thinking.

    Adam Grant



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,579 ✭✭✭Lime Tree Farm


    if your neighbour has cattle, the cattle will keep the Griselinia trimmed for you.



  • Registered Users Posts: 884 ✭✭✭leoch


    Cattle won't be a problem which hedge would u recommend for quick growth and best for privacy



  • Registered Users Posts: 32 matt.v


    I wouldn't be so concerned about quick growth, because if you're going to spend your lifetime looking at it it better be something you like. Fast growth also means it'll have to be trimmed back yearly if you want to keep it neat looking.


    Griselina is a classic for a reason, but in my view its very bland, sort of just a placeholder hedge. Something a bit more exciting would be cottoneaster, grows very well, clips very easily, and is alive with little birds in the winter. I swear to god there was a whole congress of blue tits in them every day for the past few months at my place.



  • Registered Users Posts: 326 ✭✭hirondelle


    Also I seem to recall a lot of Griselinia got wiped out in the last big freeze, even fairly mature hedges.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,579 ✭✭✭Lime Tree Farm


    It survived here, the escallonia hedge was wiped out.



  • Registered Users Posts: 662 ✭✭✭cap.in.hand.


    What kills grisellina is usually late trimming and it doesn't seal up fully if a big freeze happens



  • Registered Users Posts: 9,603 ✭✭✭Birdnuts


    I'm trying to source species(preferably native) for a shelter belt that will be bordering a peatland site that was once used for turf cutting but which has now ceased on a permanent basis. That site I'm actually hoping to get money for "rewetting" since it appears to be all the range atm with various schemes announced. Anyways I need a type of hedge to screen and provide shelter along the boundary of this cutover blanket bog which will adjoin conventional(though wet) farmland about 100m from the house. I was thinking of going with a willow mix but appears willow doesn't do well in low ph peaty soils. The best I can see as of now is some type of Downy Birch/Alder mix going on the type of soil and water table present. Is that my only option here or has anyone else discovered other species that might work here??



  • Registered Users Posts: 326 ✭✭hirondelle


    There is grey willow around the margins of the bit of similarly cutover but abandoned bog beside me- and even a patch of goat willow somehow growing on a mound in the middle of it. I'm in Kildare so it raised bog. The goat willow doesn't seem to get higher than two metres or so, but the grey willow just keeps growing- I actually cut some of it back every two years to maintain the view.



  • Registered Users Posts: 326 ✭✭hirondelle


    Now that you say it, it was the escallonia that got hammered!



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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,638 ✭✭✭endainoz


    Always found willow to grow quite easily in wet places, not too sure what would work best with it.



  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 8,967 Mod ✭✭✭✭greysides


    Looking around, I've seen Alder, Birch, Polar and Oak growing in boggy ground. Hornbeam is used in place of Beech.

    The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory, but progress. Joseph Joubert

    The ultimate purpose of debate is not to produce consensus. It's to promote critical thinking.

    Adam Grant



  • Registered Users Posts: 8,611 ✭✭✭Mooooo


    Where do ye source hedging?. Must put in a few hundred metres, some of which will be on a farm roadway so probably a certain amount of evergreen hedges to reduce the amount of material which may end up on the roadway itself? Any ideas on most suitable?



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,335 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    Check out trees on the land in autumn for bulk purchases



  • Registered Users Posts: 32 matt.v


    To be hoenst, at first read of that I thought it was some kind of smart comment about uprooting from elsewhere or something of the likes! Trees on the land actually looks very interesting after a bit of a read, does anyone have experience of them?



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,335 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    Bought from them last year.

    Not sure why you would think like you did but I suppose it takes all sorts.



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