Hedgerows

The New Year has started on a very cold note with a long spell of snow and frosts. As soon as the ground thaws we will start work on hedge planting and hedgerow management. We have been planting hedges for the last 20 years along the Valley to try and replace some of those lost when fields were enlarged in the second half of the 20th Century. The Waveney Valley is an ancient landscape - some of the hedges around Scole and the Saints villages near Bungay may be 2,000 years old - so we are keen to keep or restore as much as possible with local landowners' help.

Here are some students from Bungay High School planting a new hedge in the Saints:

The clear plastic spirals over the young hedge plants protect them from nibbling rabbits and deer, and also act as mini greenhouses to stimulate growth. After about three years they can be removed to let the hedge thicken up.

A mature hedge also needs some management or it will get tall and leggy and may collapse. Most hedges are now cut back with flails but in the past they were either coppiced or laid to promote strong, thick growth.

Here are our volunteers coppicing an old mature hedge in the Saints:

It may look drastic cutting right back to ground level but the hedge quickly regrows.

Hedges are very important for wildlife and soon the first Hazel catkins will be flowering, closely followed by Primroses and other spring flowers:

More soon.