Hedge

A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced (3 feet or closer) shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties.

This is common in tropical areas where low-income farmers can demarcate properties and reduce maintenance of fence posts that otherwise deteriorate rapidly.

Many hedgerows separating fields from lanes in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Low Countries are estimated to have been in existence for more than seven hundred years, originating in the medieval period.

As of 2024 in a study using Lidar by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology England alone was found to have a total of 390,000 km of hedgerows, which would span the circumference of the earth 10 times.

In North America, Maclura pomifera (i.e., hedge apple) was grown to form a barrier to exclude free-range livestock from vegetable gardens and corn fields.

[7]The hedgerows of Normandy became barriers that slowed the advance of Allied troops following the D-Day invasion during World War II.

Allied armed forces modified their armored vehicles to facilitate breaking out of their beachheads into the Normandy bocage.

[10] There is increased earthworm diversity in the soils under hedgerows which also help to store organic carbon and support distinct communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi.

[11] In addition to maintaining the health of the environment, hedgerows also play a huge role in providing shelter for smaller animals like birds and insects.

[12] A recent study by Emma Coulthard mentioned the possibility that hedgerows may act as guides for moths, like Acronicta rumicis, when flying from one location to another.

[9] Historically, hedges were used as a source of firewood, and for providing shelter from wind, rain and sun for crops, farm animals and people.

This method is only a rule of thumb, and can be off by a couple of centuries; it should always be backed up by documentary evidence, if possible, and take into account other factors.

Hedgerows serve as important wildlife corridors, especially in the United Kingdom where they link the country's fractured ancient woodland.

In the United Kingdom hedgerow removal has been occurring since World War I as technology made intensive farming possible, and the increasing population demanded more food from the land.

The trend has slowed down somewhat since the 1980s when cheap food imports reduced the demand on British farmland, and as the European Union Common Agricultural Policy made environmental projects financially viable.

In essence, hedgelaying consists of cutting most of the way through the stem of each plant near the base, bending it over and interweaving or pleaching it between wooden stakes.

[16] Hedges are still being laid today[17] not only for aesthetic and functional purposes but also for their ecological role in helping wildlife and protecting against soil erosion.

The disadvantage of this is that the hedge species takes a number of years before it will flower again and subsequently bear fruit for wildlife and people.

Additionally, hedge trimming causes habitat destruction to species like the small eggar moth which spend nearly their entire life cycle in blackthorn and hawthorn hedgerow.

[32] Hedges suffer from the effects of tree roots, burrowing rabbits, rain, wind, farm animals and people.

The Cornish Hedge Research and Education Group (CHREG) supports the development of traditional skills and works with Cornwall Council, FWAG (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group), Stone Academy Bodmin, Cornwall AONB, Country Trust and professional hedgers to ensure the future of Cornish Hedges in the landscape.

Typical woody plants for clipped hedges include privet, hawthorn, beech, yew, leyland cypress, hemlock, arborvitae, barberry, box, holly, oleander, lavender, among others.

Rosa multiflora is widely used as a dense hedge along the central reservation of dual-carriageway roads, such as parkways in the United States.

In mild climates, more exotic flowering hedges are formed, using Ceanothus, Hibiscus, Camellia, orange jessamine (Murraya paniculata),[1] or lillypilly (Syzygium species).

[33] The 'hedge on stilts' of clipped hornbeams at Hidcote Manor Garden, Gloucestershire, is famous and has sometimes been imitated; it is fact a standard French and Italian style of the bosquet.

Elaborately shaped and interlaced borders forming knot gardens or parterres were fashionable in Europe during the 16th and early 17th centuries.

[35] In the UK the owner of a large hedge that is adversely affecting the reasonable enjoyment of neighbouring domestic property can be made to reduce it in height.

For a hedge to qualify for reduction, it must be made up wholly or mainly of a line of two or more evergreen or semi-evergreen trees or shrubs and be over 2 metres high.

The Willow Palisade, constructed during the early Qing dynasty (17th century) to control people's movement and to collect taxes on ginseng and timber in southern Manchuria, also had hedge-like features.

The hedgerows and sunken lanes in Normandy, France posed a problem to Allied tanks after Operation Overlord, the invasion of Europe, in World War 2.