Encouraging Hedgerows for Wildlife and Shelter

By Making Soft Cheese from Goat Milk
Comments 35
13 Jul 2026

Encouraging Hedgerows for Wildlife and Shelter

Why a Living Hedge Outperforms a Fence

A well-grown hedgerow does the work of a stock fence, a windbreak and a wildlife corridor all at once, and it improves with age rather than rotting quietly in the ground. That is worth remembering when the fencing quote lands on the kitchen table.

The shelter effect is the part most often underestimated. A solid barrier — close-boarded timber, or a tight line of conifers — pushes wind up and over, then drops it back down with turbulence that skitters across the field beyond. A hedge of mixed species keeps roughly half its volume open, so air filters through it. Wind speed on the leeward side can fall by half, and the useful sheltered zone extends roughly ten to twenty times the height of the hedge. For ewes and lambs that means less chilling, fewer cases of mastitis and pneumonia, and grass that starts growing a fortnight earlier in spring.

Choosing Species That Suit Your Ground

Hawthorn is the backbone of almost every traditional British hedge, and for good reason: it is tough, thorny, tolerates heavy cutting and carries haws right through the winter. Build a mix around it rather than planting a monoculture.

Blackthorn — early blossom for pollinators, sloes for the gin, suckers freely and makes a dense thicket.
Hazel — coppices willingly, good for stakes and binders if you plan to lay the hedge.
Field maple — excellent on chalk and limestone, bright autumn colour.
Holly — slow, but evergreen and stockproof once established; a genuine winter shelter tree.
Dog rose, guelder rose and spindle — hips, berries and glorious autumn colour in the shrub layer.
Crab apple, elder and wayfaring tree — soft fruit for thrushes and small mammals.

On wet clay, add willow and alder. On thin chalk downland, lean on field maple, spindle and wayfaring tree. If you want occasional timber, plant oak, wild cherry or field maple as standards every eight to ten metres, and allow them to grow on above the cut line.

The Three Layers That Make a Hedge Work

A good hedgerow is not a wall of twigs. It has a ground layer of tussocky grass and dead litter, a shrub layer where most nesting happens, and occasional taller standards. Each supports something different.

Leave a rough grass margin of a metre or two on both sides. Tussocky margins harbour field voles, which in turn feed barn owls and kestrels, and they act as a buffer against spray drift and fertiliser reaching the hedge base. Where the margin meets the shrubs, you get the tangle that hedgehogs and dormice use to move between fields without crossing open ground.

Planting Bare Roots in the Dormant Season

Plant between November and March, whenever the ground is workable and not frozen. Bare-root whips are far cheaper than container-grown stock and establish better, provided you keep them damp from nursery to hole.

For a stockproof hedge, plant a double staggered row: roughly 40cm between plants within a row, 45cm between the two rows, giving five or six plants per metre. Slit-plant into a sprayed or hand-cleared strip if the ground is clean, or dig a trench on heavy soil. Fit spiral guards against rabbits, mulch with bark or wool, and keep the base weed-free for the first two summers — grass competition kills more young hedges than drought does.

Water during the first dry spell, and resist the temptation to cut the top for at least three years. Let it gain height first.

Cutting, Laying and the Long Rotation

The law matters here. Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 it is an offence to cut a hedge between 1 March and 31 August because of nesting birds, and in England the Hedgerow Regulations 1997 mean you generally need permission from the local authority before removing one. Check your own nation's rules, as they differ.

Trim in late winter, after the berries have gone, and never flail the whole holding in one year. A three-year rotation — a third of the hedges each winter — keeps food and cover on the farm at all times. Cut to a slight A-shape so light reaches the base and the hedge does not go bare-legged. Avoid annual cutting of fruiting species: hawthorn haws grow on second-year wood, so a tidy hedge every September is a hedge with no berries.

Lay a hedge every ten to twenty years to rejuvenate it. Midlands bullock style or the Devon and Cornish stake-and-bind both work, and either will produce a dense, stockproof barrier that outlives two or three runs of fencing.

Berries, Birds and the Payback Over Decades

The wildlife dividend arrives steadily. Hips, haws, sloes and elderberries hold redwings, fieldfares and blackbirds through hard frosts. The caterpillar crop on native hedging feeds blue tits and, in turn, the bats that hunt along the hedge line at dusk. Add a pond or a wet ditch nearby and you have the classic farm wildlife corridor.

None of this happens overnight. A hedge is a ten-year project with a fifty-year reward, which makes it a good fit for a smallholding you intend to hand on. Plant it properly, guard it, cut it sparingly and lay it in rotation — and it will shelter your stock, house your birds and pay you back long after the fence posts would have rotted away.

Land Management

Baking Sourdough Bread with Local Flour

Compact tractors need enough power for muck spreading, topping and trailer work without damaging wet ground on your land.

Previous Post At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentium.

Next Post Dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentiu deleniti atque corrupti quos dolores

5 Comments

Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
Reply
- John Abraham says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
  
  I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
  Reply
  - Robert Sonnysays Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
    
    I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
    Reply
Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
Reply

Jenny Watson

Hi! beautiful people. I`m an authtor of this blog. Read our post - stay with us

Instagram

How We Can
Help You!

Check lights, brakes, tyres and floorboards before every trip to keep loads secure and journeys legal on public roads.

section heading hidden

Our Latest News

Choosing a Tractor for Smallholding Tasks

Maintaining a Trailer for Farm and Road

Storing Hay and Straw without Spoilage

Contact Us

Article