Plant tools in an all-purpose hedge!

Bocage, windbreak, flowering, fruiting, defensive, evergreen ... The hedge comes in all forms. Forgotten, the old hedges were used by man as diversified tools, links, handles, stakes... Let's discover these practical and handy tools for the modern gardener.

The hedge and the farmer

A few decades ago, hedges crisscrossed the landscape, bordered plots of land and kept herds at bay. Sources of biodiversity, regulating water flows, windbreaks, for generations they found their place in the agricultural ecosystem. Farmers combined ecological interest and practical utility.

The branches of the "tetards", pruned and re-pruned trees with thick and twisted trunks, were used as fodder. The faggots heated the bread ovens. The bunches of flexible branches were used as brooms. Most of the wooden tools were renewed at the edge of the cultivated plots, from the simple tie to the pickaxe handle.

A piece of string

The gardener always needs a link, a piece of string, raffia, copper wire... A tomato to tie, a vine to guide, two stakes to tie, and the search for a tie begins. Pocket money? No. Going back home ? For a branch... What about the hedge, at the edge of the garden, within reach?

The willows, pruned near the short trunk, have given off young shoots, long, thin and flexible. They turn without bending, without breaking, and can tie, bind. From time immemorial, wicker has followed the vine, the ancient link of the winegrowers.

Other shrubs of the hedge were used as a link, then in braiding for basketry. Baskets, hats, trellises, were conceived, repaired, near the blood dogwood, Vitex agnus-castus, viburnum lantana, clematis...

The spade handle broke...

If the link is essential to the gardener, the handle is no less so. Spade, hoe, weed, plant... Every tool needs a handle, which always breaks at the wrong moment. Sundays and holidays, the old hedge is always there. If the ash was known for its flexibility, its tenacity, the field maple, less used, compact and homogeneous, was also used for any tool handle.

Mediterranean, renowned in its time for its properties equal to ash, the hackberry outclasses it for its robustness and flexibility. Wood of all the manufactures, stretchers, oars, axles, it was cultivated to produce forks. The shoots were pruned and shaped in order to harvest the ready-made tool. Shrub of the hot regions, the climatic warming encourages to register it in any plantation of hedge.

Tomato stakes

Less demanding in terms of mechanical properties, stakes are found on shrubs with straight branches, with straight and vigorous shoots. Hazelnut will provide beautiful stems that can be reused for several years if they are protected in winter. This gives the hedge time to regenerate.

The black locust, commonly called acacia, grows beautiful vertical shoots, thorny but solid, durable.

The blood dogwood produces long, flexible branches in the spring, then rigid, with branches that are easily lopped off. The longest stems are used as stakes to support large plants and climbers.

Another hedge shrub, with the hardest wood and the tastiest berries, the male dogwood. It was used as a wedge to split wood, harrow teeth, ladder rungs. Its stakes are extremely solid. The grandfathers found a certain interest there...

Grandfathers and children

...And knew how to recognize reliable wood that could withstand the weight of years. The cane was harvested on the edge of the meadow. Dogwoods, but also serviceberry and hazelnut trees, were appreciated. Sometimes honeysuckle was mixed in, and its imprint marked the wood with an elegant spiral. The male dogwood, so hard, became also javelin... For the pleasure of children, who remember their grandfather, find the yew, the cytise and the ash to make bows, the elder for whistles and blowpipes, the boxwood for toys, buttons and spoons.

Maintaining an old hedge, planting an all-purpose hedge, in spite of the blackthorn's readiness to escape, the bramble's readiness to go prospecting, is an encounter. Locate the handles of his future grelinette, the flexible branch that will be used to repair his straw hat. Twine the honeysuckle around the grandfather's next cane. Preparing a long vine stake. So many gestures of another rhythm. And new plantings to be made, for shrubs combining diversity, flowering, and practicality.

The hedgerow

Playing an exceptional role in plant and animal biodiversity, the hedgerow, which fell into disuse at the end of the last century, is making a strong comeback in farming practices. A complex ecosystem, it plays a protective role for the soil, crops and livestock but also has an ornamental function.

What is a hedgerow?

A hedge is a hedge composed of several species of trees and shrubs arranged in differentiated layers. Generally, it is made up of local, indigenous plants, which grow without worry and are adapted to both the climate and the soil of the region. In the past, this hedge served as a property boundary between cultivated plots and as a natural fence for livestock. This type of hedge was the basis of the famous bocages that shaped the landscape in many regions, providing firewood and delimiting plots so beautifully.

The great economic projects of intensive reparcelling between 1960 and 1980 were the reason of this so particular landscape, leaving place to the green deserts of the intensive agriculture and all the problems which are linked to them.

Composition of a hedgerow

This very diversified hedge includes a tree part with high trees (ash, beech, rowan, oak...), a shrub zone composed of bushes and shrubs such as hawthorn, viburnum, broom, holly, fusain, blackthorn or bramble, and a herbaceous zone at its foot with local plants growing spontaneously such as mallow, poppy, vulpine or clover. This plant diversity offers numerous shelters to a very varied and useful fauna. In the tree layer, birds (including birds of prey) watch over the crops, capturing parasitic insects, but also rodents and other small mammals. The tall trees are sometimes replaced or associated with trees in the form of a hedge such as hornbeam, alder, white willow or wild apple.

The shrub layer shelters a very varied fauna, birds but also insects and mammals; it often serves as a nesting area. Flowering over a long period of time and providing a variety of berries for many months, it is a choice larder for wildlife that is attracted en masse.

The herbaceous zone attracts pollinating insects, but also serves as a breeding area and biological corridor for animal movement, especially in agricultural areas. The wider the strip, the more beneficial animals will be present.

Often the herbaceous zone is located at the foot of a slope, a very common feature in bocages. The embankment compensates for certain effects of the wind and modulates them. It also has the function of slowing down the flow of rainwater and limiting the erosion of the land.

Further down, at the base of the slope, a ditch is often built to stop the progression of tree roots on the surface (which would compete with the crops) and encourage their vertical rooting. It serves as a drainage and storage area for rainwater and is often home to a wide variety of batrachians, insects and reptiles.

Interests of the plantation of a hedge bocagère

This type of very diversified hedge has many advantages on a technical, economic and environmental level.

Technical and economic advantages

• The hedge serves as a natural fence and requires little maintenance;
• It can be a source of firewood and work to be done on site (stakes, tool shed, gate ...);
• It provides a harvest of fruits and berries depending on the species planted;
• It protects from the wind;
• It has an undeniable aesthetic aspect in the landscape and constitutes an element of identity in certain regions.
• Leisure and educational activities are organized by tourism actors around the concept of the discovery of this form of development that are the hedgerows and the hedges that constitute them. Creation of hiking trails, mountain bike trails, horseback riding, bird and wildlife observation tours, but also discovery trails on the various typical pruning techniques (pollards, hornbeams, plessage...) attract many tourists in these rural areas.

Environmental benefits

• The hedgerow is a reservoir for both animal and plant biodiversity, it allows to recreate a balance between prey and predators. The crops protected by the auxiliaries are less subject to treatment products.
• It is a source of humus.
• This type of landscaping helps to fight effectively against soil erosion and nutrient leakage.
• Planted perpendicular to the slope, it favors water penetration in the soil.
• The slope plays an important role in draining and filtering water if it is overloaded with inputs. Pollutants such as phosphates and nitrates are thus fixed and transformed before they enter the water table.

Hedge trimming

There are many ways to trim a hedge depending on the desired effect and the plants that make up the hedge. Smaller hedges will be used to delimit specific areas of the garden, while larger, straighter hedges will be used as fences around a property. Regardless of the style, a hedge requires regular maintenance, let's see how to proceed.

Pruning Times

Spring is the best time to trim shrub hedges. Proceed at the very beginning of spring before the vegetation has started to grow.

We prefer to wait until July for the pruning of conifers in order to preserve the beautiful colors of the new spring shoots. For the more fastidious, lovers of straight lines, green pruning should be done in three stages: at the end of April, at the end of June and at the end of August. This will ensure a clean and neat appearance.

How to proceed?

1- pruning an open hedge

An open hedge is composed of shrubs with decorative foliage or interesting flowers. They will be pruned in a lighter way using simple secateurs or a small saw, in order to remove the dead wood and the branches that cross. The goal is to clear the interior of the plant to let in light. This pruning can also be used to limit the height if necessary. Always try to keep a certain harmony and not to make holes in the whole.

2- Regular hedges

Interventions should be more frequent, every two to three months. For a successful hedge, plant two stakes on either side of the hedge and stretch a wire between them. Do not hesitate to adjust the height of the wire using a level on flat ground or a meter on sloping ground. Proceed in the same way for the pruning on both sides of the hedge.

Use hand shears if the length is less, motorized shears if the hedge is more important. The blade should be disinfected and sharpened beforehand. Then simply slide the shears along the wire used as a guide. Keep a light hand and do not press on the wire, as this would cause irregularities. Do not hesitate to prune frequently so that the hedge does not grow more than 10 cm per year.

To be dense, a hedge must be as wide as it is high, or even slightly wider at the bottom. It is possible, for more softness, to round the angles to create a more harmonious shape.

The various possible shapes

Here again, it's all a matter of taste and functionality:

• Rectangular: the hedge forms a real wall that doesn't let the light through, it protects from the eyes and from intrusions;
• Domed: the hedge is rounded at the top, the ideal solution to keep a natural look to the garden.
• Half sphere: mostly used on small shrubs to suggest shapes or delimit particular areas in the garden.
• Loose: to create a flowered wall at the bottom of the garden;
• Sculpted: reserved for virtuosos of the shears and for boxwood and yew hedges. All possibilities are then possible (volutes, windows, crenels and merlons ...)

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball', an alternative to boxwood

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball': a replacement for boxwood?

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' owes its name to its compact ball-like habit. Rather recent (it was found by a nurseryman about ten years ago), it is already a serious candidate to replace boxwood, which is susceptible to two diseases and one pest (the boxwood borer defoliator caterpillar).

To know: nurserymen are looking for plants that could replace boxwood. However, at the present time, there is no plant that can replace boxwood in all its uses and all its geographical zones.

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' is especially interesting in the southern half of France, to form small borders, but also balls.

The advantages

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball', like a number of other Pittosporums, is particularly resistant to drought. It has no known diseases or pests, and, as an added bonus, it can be pruned very well.

Pruning 

It can be pruned several times a year, depending on the needs, but avoid pruning in the middle of winter, when there is a risk of frost.

A small pruning in April, then a second one during the summer, allows to obtain a perfect ball.

Its small boxwood leaves

If in a very favorable situation (as in the nursery), Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' has a vigorous habit and 'big' leaves (1 cm long and 8 mm wide), rest assured: in the open ground, the habit will naturally be more compact, with finer leaves, similar to those of boxwood.

The propagation of Pittosporum 'Golf Ball

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' can be cuttings in September, but beware: it is a plant whose reproduction without the authorization of the New Zealand nurseryman is forbidden.

How to plant this pittosporum?

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' is a full sun shrub, possibly in partial shade. The soil should be normal or draining but not waterlogged in winter. In this case, plant it on a mound.

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' can also be grown in a pot, on a terrace, in a mixture of one third soil, one third quality potting soil and one third compost.

Care of Pittosporum 'Golf Ball

Pittosporum 'Golf Ball' is a hardy plant. Therefore, it does not show any signs of weakness when it is thirsty. It is therefore necessary to check regularly that the soil remains fresh, but not waterlogged.

The benefits of a hedge

Evergreen, deciduous, flowering...

To know what we are talking about, and what type of tree we use to create a hedge, let's go back to some definitions.

An evergreen tree is a tree that keeps its leaves in winter. On the other hand, a deciduous tree loses its leaves in the fall. Flowering trees can belong to both categories, evergreen or deciduous.

Trees or shrubs?

It is also important to distinguish between trees and shrubs. Even on large plots of land, where there is room to install large hedgerows favorable to biodiversity, we mainly use shrubs, which are less cumbersome than trees.

A shrub can easily be more than 2, 3 or 4 meters high. Also, on the scale of a modest garden (500 to 1000 m2), we tend to use subjects of 1m to 1.50m, or that we will maintain at this size (in general, a maintenance pruning every 2 or 3 years is sufficient).

Diversity to encourage biodiversity

When planting a hedge, it is important to keep biodiversity in mind. This requires a diversity of planted shrubs. It is important to mix species and varieties, to have recourse to evergreens, deciduous and flowering plants, with flowering periods staggered throughout the year. Thanks to the plant diversity, we encourage animal diversity and therefore, the arrival of terrestrial and aerial auxiliaries.

The advantages of a plant hedge

• Contrary to a mineral hedge, the vegetal hedge brings coolness to the garden when it is hot.
• The leaves of deciduous shrubs nourish the soil and the biodiversity of the soil when they fall to the ground and decompose.
• It limits the effect of wind, erosion of sloping soils, etc.

A 'disadvantage': maintenance

The disadvantage of a vegetal hedge is that it requires a minimum of maintenance to benefit from all its advantages in the long term. Some shrubs require only one pruning per year, others every two or three years. From time to time, it will be necessary to intervene in a more drastic way, i.e. to cut back to let it grow back.

Bonus: pruning will allow you to have some firewood or to make some shelters for auxiliaries (for example, for a hedgehog), by making some piles that you will install under the hedge.

Berry hedges, a feeder and a shelter for birds

Have you considered a berry hedge? Decorative fruits bring color and shape to hedges in seasons when they have lost their flowers but also, and this is less known, provide cover for many animals.

A life-size feeder

A large part of the decorative fruits are very appreciated by birds. However, there is no need to fear that the hedge will be plundered overnight! On the contrary ... By choosing species whose fruit ripens at different times, you can create a long-lasting show that starts in August and ends in late February or early March, and you can create beautiful effects. Many fruits ripen very late (ivy, some apples) and the birds do not touch them until they have been softened by several successive frosts. Also, be aware that white or yellow fruits are shunned by birds until they have nothing else to eat!

Many "organic" gardeners will appreciate the extra food provided for the birds by the decorative fruiting shrub hedge. By keeping them in place around the garden, they will remain present in spring and summer to protect vegetables from caterpillars, roses from aphids and many other pests.

Shelter as well as cover

Thorny shrubs such as pyracantha or berberis protect birds from a number of predators such as cats, small carnivores or birds of prey. They are especially popular for nesting. The addition of evergreen species, such as hollies and mahonias, provides additional protection and allows the birds to find shelter in the hedge during the winter. Once they have both food and shelter, the birds will not stray from the garden and the sprayer can easily be dispensed with.

Some species to use ?

Pyracantha (Pyracantha talantoïdes)

Innumerable orange, red or yellow fruits on somewhat stiff stems with thorns. Alone or mixed with other shrubs, they form an impassable hedge. The white bloom in spring is also very decorative.

Height: 2,50m; spread, 2m.

Apple tree ' Golden Hornet' (Malus 'Golden Hornet')

Abundant mini golden flowers along the branches from August. Very decorative, they also make excellent jellies. Birds enjoy them from November. Height : 4m, spread : 3m.

Callicarpa ( Callicarpa bodinieri 'Profusion')

Very surprising with its purple fruits that the birds don't eat until they blacken from frost. Also interesting for its bright yellow foliage in autumn. Use sparingly, to break up the monotony. Height and spread: 1,50m.

European Fusain (Euonymus 'Red Cascade')

Curious bright pink fruits that open in quarters to reveal the orange bishop's cap seeds, all against a backdrop of beautiful red fall colors. Ideal in limestone soil. Height : 4m, width : 2,m.

Rough rose (Rosa rugosa)

Very large red fruits that look like cherry tomatoes follow the simple pink or white flowers. Its upright, compact, well-branched habit and strongly thorny stems make it an excellent defensive hedge shrub that can be integrated into a flowering hedge. Ideal for furnishing the base of the hedge. Especially continuous flowering cultivars such as 'F.J. Grootendorst' or 'Pink Grootendorst', which remain in bloom from mid-June until the first frost, should be chosen. The same applies to the new generation of so-called "landscape" roses such as the Meillandécor ® (Meilland), Clos Fleuri ® (Delbard) or Nirpaysage ® (Nirp) series, which offer the advantage of flowering from the base to the top of the plant and can be pruned with a simple shear. Height and spread: about 1,20m.

White Symphorine (Symphoricarpos albus)

Large, pure white fruits that look like cotillions, hanging from the end of young branches. Ideal at the base of the hedge to fill the space between taller shrubs. Grows well in the shade and in poor soil. Height: 1.20m, spread: 1.50m to 2m (suckers).

Mahonia ( Mahonia aquifolium)

Large compound evergreen leaves gathered in a crown around the branches. Intended for the first row of living hedges, because it hardly exceeds 1,50 m in height, this evergreen shrub with thorny leaves, takes a red tint at the end of the season. In March, large bunches of honey-scented yellow flowers are followed in August by clusters of beautiful blue fruits. Height and spread: 1,50m.

Holly (Ilex aquifolium 'Alaska')

This variety is self-fertile. It takes only one plant to produce an abundance of red fruits every year. The rather small leaves are more elegant than on other hollies. Height: 3m approximately (pruning well) spread: 1,20m.

Tree ivy (Hedera helix 'Arborescens')

We appreciate its evergreen foliage and its late flowers (green), which delight the bees in November. Its branches "climb" between the others to make the hedge persistent little by little. Height: up to 2 m, width: 1,50m.