Last week I went to my local plant nursery and asked about hedging plants, only to hear that I am too late for bare-rooted plants and that container ones are much more expensive. I was disappointed and thought I would have to postpone my plan to make a new hedge until  next year. However, I then realised that I actually have a number of potential hedging plants coming up in various places around the garden, they were just in the wrong locations.

So today I took a hazel that had been ‘planted’ in my veg patch by a kindly squirrel, a couple of hawthorns that just appeared in neglected flower beds, a beech seedling, a spindle (I think) and a few field maples (all similarly appearing in neglected beds in other parts of the garden).

I then dug a series of planting holes along what we call the ‘rabbit-proof hedge’ that runs across the garden halfway down and serves to divide the garden into the area near the house and that around the cabin ( more on that later!) and beyond. My idea is to make a double thickness hedge with a variety of native plants to support wildlife and create a visual boundary and privacy for the house and cabin. My aim is for it to be wild and natural and so planting a fairly random selection makes sense, and also from an ecological and sustainable angle, the use of plants that have freely already appeared in my garden is good and  also deeply satisfying.

So here is a part of it I made today,

Ok so it is very rough and I should have dug a nice trench and weeded it all and mulched etc etc, but I know that in the current situation if I make myself do things ‘properly’ that will also mean slowly and the things just won’t happen at all. I also reason that these self-seeded plants should be pretty tough and if they aren’t well then, that ‘s kind of tough. I did give them some nice free manure and I watered them in well. I’lll se if they need weeding and mulching as the season progresses, indeed this may be a good use for all the grass clippings that ben creates with his mowing.

My plan is to carry on with this re-location of self-seeded plants to other parts of the garden, for example in the area just prior to the orchard, where the dead trees were, and where I want to extend the hedgerow that has already been provided by the busway people to a sort of shrubby area coming across the garden , making another windbreak and achieving another sort of wild area.