In recent years the word "hedgerow" has crept into the conversation of American gardeners. It's a word we know from English poetry -- a leafy place where mischievous children hide and lovers keep secret trysts.
Essentially, it's just a more old-fashioned, romantic version of a hedge. While a typical American hedge is a closely trimmed line of privet, useful for distinguishing your yard from mine, or giving the roses a dark green background against which to glow, a hedgerow is a long thicket, traditionally used to divide one farm field from another.
A hunter works a hedgerow in England. A wild hedge is a garden in itself.
(David Tipling/stone)
|
|
The old hedgerows of England contain more informal shrubs and trees -- hawthorn being the most common -- and of a greater diversity. In fact, the more varied the woody plants, the more ancient the hedgerow. (As a rule of thumb, each additional species in a 30-foot row is said to indicate another century of age.) Beneath these impenetrable stands, wildflowers such as primroses bloom, and an assorted cast of characters nest, hunt, forage and breed: partridges and pippits, beetles and butterflies, and a host of small mammals -- hedgehogs, dormice, badgers and stoats.
Originally, hedgerows were simply what was left after a field was cleared. They served as boundaries, then barriers to keep livestock in, or barriers to keep livestock out, as more land supported tillage rather than grazing. Since the 1950s, more than half have disappeared from neglect or from the consolidation of farmland. Throughout much of Europe as well, large tracts have replaced the scenic patchwork of wood-bordered fields.
Nevertheless, an enthusiastic hedgerow revival in England is underway, thanks to a growing ecological consciousness, combined with the famous British affection of wild creatures. Recent legislation now protects old hedgerows and encourages the planting out of new ones. With so much of the old forest gone, these remnants have become important wildlife refuges.
There has even been a renaissance in the craft of hedge-laying, a living fence system that evolved in the days before wire mesh. Closely planted saplings are grown to about 10 or 12 feet, then partially severed near the base and bent over to form diagonal "pleachers." These are trimmed, staked and woven into a tidy, dense barrier. New shoots sprout at the base and work themselves into the framework.
Hedge-laying competitions are popular, and even Prince Charles has set his hand to laying traditional hedges at Highgrove, his Gloucestershire estate. Hedging styles vary by region and by function. A sheep fence must be unbreachable at the bottom to keep in the lambs. A bullock fence must stand up to the lunge of a half-ton beast.
The passion for hedgerows is catching on in America, too. Many studies show that maintaining a diversity of plant and animal life improves crop yields, keeping pests and predators in a healthy balance and attracting pollinators. A thick, multilayered hedgerow, composed of trees, shrubs, flowering plants and grasses, helps to curb erosion along fields and rivers and breaks the force of wind far more effectively than would a solid, manmade fence.
For a gardener with neither sheep nor bullock, a hedgerow still meets these needs, as well as providing privacy, noise reduction and a screen against roadside dust. It is a garden in its own right, a mixed border of woody and herbaceous plants -- many of which yield an edible harvest to boot. Some of the best hedgerow plants bear fruits -- cherry, crabapple, blackberry, mulberry, hawthorn, native persimmon, pawpaw, shadblow, blueberry, elderberry, grape -- or nuts such as hazel and beech.
Such a planting turns the yard into a haven for birds, who feast on these and other plants, especially natives such as dogwood, fringetree, viburnum, sumac, serviceberry, chokeberry, spicebush and wild rose. A neighborhood network of hedgerows can also provide wildlife corridors -- strips of woodland in which animals can travel safely to and from less developed areas. When a hedgerow is set out, an underplanting of native grasses such as little bluestem, and wildflowers such as beebalm, aster, butterfly weed and black-eyed Susan, will keep weedy, less desirable plants from taking hold.
Americans like their wide open spaces, and are sometimes suspicious of neighbors who throw up barriers. Plant yours with pride, and share the benefits of berries, fragrant flowers and perches where birds sing. In a poem celebrating country life, William Henry Davies wrote, "If I must be fenced in, then let my fence/Be some green hedgerow." Even city mice might agree.
