Planting productive hedgerows
Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:42 pm
On holiday in the last fortnight in the Isle of Wight, I was struck by the number of lengthy hedges, particularly on public footpaths, which consisted almost entirely of brambles, with a a smattering of blackthorn (sloes) and wild damson. The brambles were a compact upright sub-species, not one of the sprawling types, and completely covered in a very heavy crop of smallish blackberries - I wondered if they'd been planted deliberately to provide wild food for past generations, as they were still as completely stockproof as a well-maintained standard hawthorn/blackthorn hedge. Compare this with the hawthorn dominated hedges of the Midland and Northern shires - unproductive, unless you can find a use for haws or like eating the young leaves as a salad ('bread and cheese' we called them round here)! The hawthorn hedges were planted when the open fields of these shires were enclosed to provide a rapid stockproof barrier, but they now just seem to me to be a symbol of the bland 20th/21st century monoculture seen in the surrounding fields of endless cereals or temporary uniformly green pasture.
It seems to me now that farmers should be encouraged to start planting fruit hedges (initially where previous hedges have been removed), including brambles, blackthorn, tayberry, damsons, plums, greengages, wild rose, with occasional elder, apple, pear and cherry trees. Even bush gooseberries make a good hedge. The farmers could either harvest these themselves, or if not, I'll bet there are plenty of people who would be interested in setting up small rural enterprises picking, processing and selling produce, paying a rent for each hedge - the crop from a few hundred yards of hedge would potentially be extremely heavy and varied, with no fertiliser or sprays required, as native fruit varieties are easy to grow and disease resistant. Hedges like these would be great for biodiversity, supporting a larger range of species and more individuals than existing hedges. The products would range from jams and jellies to wines and perfumes, and fruits for flavouring other products, such as ice creams.
These would be expensive to plant, although the benefit to local habitats, the local economy, promotion of native fruit against imports should surely attract government grants, and once established, there would be little cost in maintenance apart from annual trimming, which any hedge requires. For the farmer, it should be a low-risk investment.
It seems to me now that farmers should be encouraged to start planting fruit hedges (initially where previous hedges have been removed), including brambles, blackthorn, tayberry, damsons, plums, greengages, wild rose, with occasional elder, apple, pear and cherry trees. Even bush gooseberries make a good hedge. The farmers could either harvest these themselves, or if not, I'll bet there are plenty of people who would be interested in setting up small rural enterprises picking, processing and selling produce, paying a rent for each hedge - the crop from a few hundred yards of hedge would potentially be extremely heavy and varied, with no fertiliser or sprays required, as native fruit varieties are easy to grow and disease resistant. Hedges like these would be great for biodiversity, supporting a larger range of species and more individuals than existing hedges. The products would range from jams and jellies to wines and perfumes, and fruits for flavouring other products, such as ice creams.
These would be expensive to plant, although the benefit to local habitats, the local economy, promotion of native fruit against imports should surely attract government grants, and once established, there would be little cost in maintenance apart from annual trimming, which any hedge requires. For the farmer, it should be a low-risk investment.