Hazel, willow, beef and storytelling from Bedfordshire

Posts in category Hedge

Who was this Pope bloke anyway?

Who was this Pope bloke anyway?

We own about four hectares of woodland of which one, Chester Wood, is ancient semi-natural. The rest is a plantation: Bottoms’ Corner, created in 1999. The ancient woodland is a strip that survived the destruction of what may have been a much larger wood of which no records survive as far as I know; its removal must have […]

Making a rabbit fence fancy

Making a rabbit fence fancy

I’ve spent a couple of days recently building a rabbit net around a Bedfordshire veg patch. I was fairly skeptical to begin with, when my client suggested building  a rabbit net that would be supported by hazel stakes and decorated with willow. However after some experimentation and discussion, we’ve developed a fence that I’m pretty […]

Helping with a hedge

Helping with a hedge

I’ve spent a couple of days helping lay a hedge on a neighbour’s farm over the last fortnight which has been good if extremely cold. It’s an excellent example of the benefits of the environmental grant schemes that have been and are still available to farmers.  This hedge was planted along with a couple of small […]

Bean poles, pea sticks, hedge stakes&...

Bean poles, pea sticks, hedge stakes…

I got into the swing of hazel over Christmas and have cut a bit now. I like to cut a little, process it, then cut more; that way, by alternating activity, I avoid spending too much time doing either (and the associated muscle pain), but more important it avoids creating a cat’s-cradle of fallen stems that’s a pain to unravel.I’ve […]

Time for a fire

Time for a fire

I seem to remember that it’s a combination of reducing temperature and day-length that prompts deciduous trees to begin the process of leaf shedding. I am once again impressed with the precision of timing involved; after all trees don’t just dump their leaves – that would be too easy. Rather, it’s an active process. Lots of useful material […]

Living willow fence

Living willow fence

I delivered some beef to a customer a couple of days ago, for whom I did some work earlier in the year. It was lovely to see her again and great to see the willow fence we built and to hear how pleased she is with it. As predicted when we discussed the project in July 2011, […]

Living willow fence nearly complete

Living willow fence nearly complete

After a couple of days work I’ve finished this thirty metres of open weave willow fence. It took a while to decide exactly where to go with this job. I’m always very careful about recommending the use of living willow – it can be a right pain once it gets going and in the wrong place its speed […]

No hedge crimes here

No hedge crimes here

In the hands of an amateur, a tractor mounted flail can be bad news for a hedge. There’s still evidence of hedge crime to be found without looking too hard. But you’ve got to consider a bit of hedge history and take a look at what these things can do when in the right hands […]

Farm bird survey

Farm bird survey

Taking money, as we do, from the EU through the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, sometimes bothers me. Partly that’s due to a bit of guilt in taking public money for what could be seen as private gain and partly because it’s got to be better not to be so reliant on a grant that inevitably will end at some point. However, […]

Coppicing oak in a hedge

Coppicing oak in a hedge

After a great deal of frustration over the last two weeks, with a chainsaw that wouldn’t start, I finally got going with the last piece of hedge coppicing in our Countryside Stewardship Scheme, this morning. We cracked on despite a stiff breeze. At least the wind was coming from the west and would in theory […]