Want to avoid ripping out an old hedge that’s got leggy and patchy? Here’s what designer Sue Townsend did in a garden with wild planting and an old yew hedge

By Daisy Bowie-Sell

Published: Thursday, 08 June 2023 at 12:00 am

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Sue Townsend’s loose and wild planting works particularly well because she has such a strong structure of existing and new evergreens and hedges in the garden. Her initial design accommodated two pre-existing bay trees, a tall yew hedge with a quirky keyhole opening in it and very overgrown native hedges into the design. “The native hedges were huge and had become leggy at the base and top heavy with growth. We could have ripped them out but it didn’t feel like the right thing to do. The aim in keeping them was to create a denser hedge that would be a good habitat for wildlife, and as well as an attractive feature.”

 

More on hedges

• Hedging plants: 30 of the best plants for a hedge
• How to care for your hedgerow
• How and when to trim a hedge

Her clients commissioned a local craftsman, Clive Leeke of The Old Farmyard to revitalise them by laying them in the traditional way. The stems of the existing hedge were partially cut through near the base (being careful not to cut all the way through) and then bent and woven through a framework of 1.8m-high hazel stakes set 50cm apart.

This practice of partially cutting the stems stimulates new growth at the base, which in turn can be bent and laid into the hazel framework as it grows. To create the arches, multiple cuts were made up the stems to allow them to be bent and twisted over into an arch shape. The whole hedge was finished off with weaving some hazel binding (long pliable shoots) to keep the shape and prevent birds/animals pulling it apart. Once a year the new shoots in the hedge line are tucked into the framework and any excess growth trimmed off.

Here’s more on how to lay a hedge

 

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