CORNISH HEDGES

This flail-damaged hedge will almost certainly have a seriously degraded stone structure hidden beneath the thick mass of rank growth. You need to be aware of this and put in place a plan to deal with it, as collapse may occur when the growth is removed. Either your group can consider raising funds to employ the help of a qualified hedger or for less money members of the group can attend a short course in hedge repair. The Cornwall Rural Education & Skills Trust (CREST) and the Guild of Cornish Hedgers can advise on this.

You will need to find out who owns the hedge, and seek their permission to carry out the restoration work. CHL (Cornish Hedges Library) Who Owns That Cornish Hedge? might be helpful. If it is an old hedge and runs alongside a road it is most likely to be the property of the adjoining landowner, not the Cornwall Council which was responsible originally for the flailing. It may help to get the owner on your side if you point out that serious damage has been done to their boundary hedges by flailing, and that you are proposing voluntarily to put right some of that damage free of charge, for the sake of improving biodiversity.

If the hedge is alongside a public or permissive footpath across private land, you will need the consent of the farmer or landowner, and must obey the countryside code regarding gates, crops, livestock etc. See www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-countryside-code. The simplest way to begin might be with a hedge belonging to an interested supporter or member of your group, if this has been spoilt by flailing on the outside. The owner of such a boundary hedge has a right to enter the adjoining property for the purpose of maintaining his hedge, though courtesy demands that you inform this neighbour of your intention.

Having obtained permission from the landowner, if your hedge runs alongside a road you will need to inform the Cornwall County Highways Department that you will be working on the roadside, and you must comply with any requirements they ask. See the Cornish Hedges Library's paper Advice for Working on Roadside Hedges which gives useful guidance. You may be able to borrow equipment such as road traffic cones from the council, otherwise you may need to raise some funds perhaps by donations from those interested in supporting or joining in on the project. You will need someone with a vehicle suitable to take away the green waste.

It would be wise to have personal accident and liability cover for yourself, your group or the individuals within it.

Read the CHL Risk Assessment Guidance and equip yourselves with suitable protective clothing, gloves and strong boots (preferably steel-toed), and other preparations for a day's work in the open air - packed lunch, first aid kit, sunscreen, etc.

Keep a photographic record of your project, including views and close-ups of the hedge before you begin. These will be interesting in contrast to how the hedge should look in a few years' time after proper care. Beneath the ugly mass of flail-induced weeds is hidden a historical stone-built monument to craftsmanship perhaps many centuries old, robbed of its primeval flora and wildlife and sadly in need of rescue and regeneration.

PROJECT STAGE 2. Removal of undesirable hedge growth.

This is the start of the practical work. To minimise disturbance or damage to any wildlife remaining in the hedge, work must be carried out only in the months from September to February. Work on dry days and not if the hedge is too wet from previous rain. Make sure that you have arranged access to a qualified hedger, or have a member/members of your group already trained in hedge repair.

If your hedge has been spoiled by invasive growth on both sides so you want to restore the whole hedge, and it is a case for repair and not for complete rebuilding, work on one side first, until the whole length of this side has been cleared of woody growth and invasive weeds and the stonework repaired. Ideally the second side should then be left for at least twelve months, to give surviving wildlife on that side time to move over into your restored side when it has made sufficient new green growth. After that, restore the second side in exactly the same way you did the first. If there is a bad breach in the hedge where both sides have collapsed, rebuild that section from both sides in one operation. In cases where the boundary runs down the centre of the hedge you will need to get each owner's consent to work on their owned side.

The first step is to remove heavy invasive growth from the hedge side and the verge along the foot of the hedge. Growth along the top of the hedge is left undisturbed, unless it is literally just ivy and invasive weeds with no bushes or trees.

Woody species that must be removed from the stones of the hedge side as completely as possible are: ivy,gorse,blackthorn,hawthorn,bramble,andseedlingorsuckeringtrees. Alltheseareleftalong the hedge top, including ivy which has grown up into bushes as its flowers are valuable for bees and other insects, and its berries for birds. The same applies to brambles along the top - weave any long growths back into the bushes.

Invasive weeds that must be removed from the bottom, sides and also, as far as possible, the top of the hedge, are winter heliotrope, three-cornered leek, nettles, bracken, false oat grass (onion couch, so called because it has little onion-shaped swellings at the base of the stems), and rampant garden species such as variegated deadnettle, periwinkle and montbretia.

If your hedge contains Japanese knotweed consult official sources for instructions for safe disposal. This will not be a problem if you tackle it by hand-removing the soft new shoots as soon as they appear, throughout two or three seasons. As the crowns fail under this treatment they can be removed and burnt, without risk. Similarly, bracken is best got rid of by perpetually cutting off the young shoots as they appear, before the 'crosiers' open into fronds. Do not pull bracken with bare hands as the stems are sharp.

The basic tools you will need for this work are secateurs, loppers, bushman's saw, garden border fork, long-handled dung fork or eavel, rake, and for hedges along roads and paths, a stiff-bristled broom. Much of the growth requires severing, then hand-removing. The object is to cut the woody growth such as gorse right back to where it emerges between the stones, and to remove the rambling stems and roots of invasive weeds. If you encounter snails, slugs, spiders etc, pop them over to the other side of the hedge out of harm's way.

Hand-trimming brambles with secateurs. Hold down the thorny stems while root is severed below the lump at base of stems. This discourages regrowth.

Proceed cautiously and avoid tugging at roots between the stones, as this can cause collapse. The object is to cut and peel the growth away, leaving the severed roots to die and rot away between the stones where they are. Woody growth is removed with loppers or saw as close between the stones as possible without disturbing the stones. On a much-flailed hedge many or most of the stones are likely to be loose, so proceed with care, especially if you are not wearing steel- toed boots. Where the stone is so loose the hedge needs to be extensively repaired or rebuilt, you need not cut so close. The stubs and roots will be removed afterwards as the hedge side is taken down for rebuilding.

Brambles are best removed with secateurs, cutting just below the knob from which the thorny stems emerge. Nettles need their roving yellow rhizome roots removed as far as possible without loosening the hedge stones. Any that can't be removed will die if their young growing shoots are repeatedly pulled off as they appear in spring and summer. Montbretia and onion couch need their corms and bulbous clusters chopping out, bearing in mind that they grow from the fresh ones that form on top of the older root each season, so be careful not to drop any. A tool such as a small pick or a fireman's axe can be useful for this. Along the foot of the hedge a garden fork may be used to loosen the invasive roots before pulling them out. Take care not to loosen hedge stones, and tread the earth down firmly afterwards.

To finish, the road or path must be swept clean of all earth and debris. The cut growth ideally should be stacked nearby as a habitat pile, but if a suitable place for this is not available the waste should be well-shaken to allow any remaining invertebrate life to escape back into the hedge, then taken to the nearest centre for green recycling.

PROJECT STAGE 3. Repairs to hedge structure.

In the worst case, your hedge will have been so badly damaged by the long-term effects of flailing that stones may fall as soon as you begin to remove the growth. Sometimes you can see that behind the gorse mat, the stone hedge facing has deteriorated into a dust slide of jumbled rocks. If you have decided to be a fund-raising group to employ a hedger, this is where he can quote a price for rebuilding or repairing the hedge. If the whole hedge is so bad it needs completely rebuilding, and you are personally unable to train in Cornish hedging to Craftsman or Craftswoman standard, this is the best thing to do. If your group becomes serious about restoring hedges into the future, it would be worthwhile to recruit a member who is willing and able to train as a craftsman hedger.

Agree with your hedger that during rebuilding, all roots of invasive species such as ivy, nettles and winter heliotrope must be removed. Soil along the foot of the hedge will also be infested. The old soil fill from inside the hedge must be saved as it may contain precious seed produced from species going back to the original seed stock centuries before the hedge was built. As the hedge is rebuilt, using rab for the fill, handfuls of this old soil are put in the crevices along the courses of stone, giving the dormant seed a chance to grow out between the stones. Don't let it get between the actual stones of each course - use an old dustpan brush to brush it into the crevices, keeping the stone-on-stone contact clean. The remainder of this soil is used to top the rebuilt hedge if sufficient, or scattered along on the topping used, to finish. If enough, the last of it can also be spread as a topping layer to the earth along the foot of the hedge.

If the hedge presents a simpler job of repairing parts of the stone facing, and you have prepared for this by yourself attending or by sending one or two of your group members on a hedge repairing course and reading CHL Repairing Cornish Hedges and Stone Hedges, this is your baby. You will need to proceed very carefully, not to cause an avalanche. If you do, you must immediately post a group member to halt the traffic, and clear the roadway at once.

Tools required are a long-handled Cornish shovel, a heavy hammer and a profile former. This can be cheaply made from a piece of plywood - see CHL Building Hedges in Cornwall, page 4 for instructions.

Remove the growth from the hedge side, if possible without causing stones to fall, for one metre length only. Repair this section of hedge face, replacing the stones as far as possible in their original order, working in accordance with the CHL Code of Good Practice for Cornish Hedging. Where an area of loose stone continues beyond your metre length, at the end of each course of stone leave a little step or seating so as to interlock the next section of repair on to that course. Then strip the growth from another metre, and repair immediately. Never strip more than you can repair in one day, as the bared hedge could collapse into the road or footpath as soon as you go away and leave it, especially if rain falls on it.

You are likely to find that there is not enough stone for the repairs, as in the early years of flailing many hedgebanks collapsed and the council or the farmer may have removed the debris. You will need stone of the same type that the hedge is built of. If your hedge is on somebody's land they may have a stockpile of spare stone already put by for repairs. Otherwise contact the Guild of Cornish Hedgers or CREST for advice on obtaining stone.

If the hedge face is reasonably good but small sections of stone fall, or have fallen out, repair the hole or gap. The stones may be still lying at the foot of the hedge, or may have been thrown up on to the top. If the stone is missing, you will need to get similar stone to replace it.

If only single stones fall out, replace them exactly as they were and tap them back into place with a heavy hammer.

If the hedge stones are all in place but bulging outwards here and there, tap them back with the hammer, starting with the loosest stone in the middle of the bulge and working outwards in a circular way, until they are all as tight as they will go.

If all the shrubby growth on top of your hedge has been killed off by horizontal flailing, it may regrow from seed in time. However, you can speed the recovery by suitable planting. In most parts of Cornwall you can't go wrong with a mixed planting of hawthorn, gorse and holly, planted roughly 50cm (20 inches) apart and interspersed with native honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum), dog rose (Rosa canina) and field rose (Rosa arvensis). Keep an eye on them for a while to make sure they don't dry out.

Finish by raking and tidying up, sweeping scattered earth neatly in along the foot of the hedge.

PROJECT STAGE 4. Return of species

Return of species.

This is the exciting part, but may also be the most disappointing. Your hedge has been flailed, often during the spring, summer and autumn months between February and November, so it will have lost many species. The more often this has been done, the fewer species will return. This is because summer trimming denies the plant its seed-ripening, so the fresh stock of seed in the hedge has not been replaced. In hedges flailed after August only the early-ripening seeds such as red campion will survive, while all others are still lost. When this is done for several years, even the stock of dormant seed is lost, because as soon as it germinates each year it, too, is denied seeding by the next flailing. At the same time the flailed hedge loses soil, as either it dries too much and soil falls from between the stones, or the mat of woody species on the hedge side has shaded out the originally tight green herbal growth from between the stones, allowing the soil to wash out, and this too carries away seed.

You will have cleared the invasive growth from your hedge and done your repairs in the late autumn and winter months, so spring is the time when the first results of your labours will show up. You need help now from someone who can recognise plants in their seedling stage, and who will direct the removal of the invasive seedlings, while carefully leaving desirable species to grow. You will also need to remove any young sprouts from cut-off stubs of gorse and other woody species left between the stones. If these are continually removed, the stumps will die and harmlessly rot away. For the first year this removal of unwelcome seedlings and regrowth is all that should be done.

Monitor your hedge for the reappearance and growth of the hedge's original native species, and record those that appear. It is vitally important that they must ripen and cast their seed, so no trimming of the hedge side is allowed. The spores of mosses and ferns are ubiquitous so these should reappear naturally over the next year or two if the hedge side is left untrimmed and undisturbed.

In the second year you will again need to remove invasive weeds and sprouts, and leave the desirable species to grow, flower and cast seed. This must continue until the fertility of the hedge has fallen, as it will as long as flailing is not done.

It is likely that few species will reappear, and these will mainly be those easy-seeders tolerant of enriched soils such as red campion and foxglove. You may be content with this, as at least they are flowering and bee-friendly. If you wish to restore a better diversity to your hedge, you need to decide on its original character. Was it a typical farmland or roadside hedge, or a more specialised heathland, coastal or marshy hedge? See CHL Check-list of Types of Cornish Hedge Flora and Picture Gallery/Cornish Hedge Flora. These will show a typical selection of the species that should have been in your hedge.

One way to re-introduce local flora, if there is any left in local meadows or verges, is by taking a few small plugs from this area (with permission, of course) and stuffing them into the crevices of your hedge. You will have to watch them for a while to make sure they don't get dry and die or drop out.

If you are a gardener, don't throw all the weed seedlings on the compost heap. Many would once have been in your hedge, so transplant them there - eg thistles, plantains, chickweeds, speedwells, bitter-cresses, nightshades, sow-thistles, mustards, vetches, woundworts, willowherbs (not Rosebay, which spreads), mayweeds, cranesbills, trefoils - anything that flowers and seeds and doesn't spread by roots as in ground cover. Don't introduce root-runners and spreaders like periwinkle, variegated deadnettles, garden geraniums and St John's worts, etc, or other garden plants.

The use of bought wild flower seed is frowned on by the purists, but desperate cases sometimes require desperate measures. Don't use the packets sold by commercial garden seed firms. Go to specialist providers of responsibly-sourced British wild flower meadow seed, whose stock should include some of the flower species and the kind of grasses that once flourished in your hedge. Don't buy flower meadow mixtures, as these contain far too much grass, usually 80/20 grass to wild flower seed. This is the wrong way round for Cornish hedges which would naturally be more like 80% wild flower species to 20% grasses. Find a source that sells 1 or 2 gram packets of individual species. Choose half a dozen grass species from the fescues, bents, and other native grasses such as sweet vernal, crested dogtail, hair grass and slender foxtail, and as many as you can afford of differentwildflowerspeciessuchasfieldscabious,ox-eyedaisy,self-healandcommontoadflax. To know which to buy for a typical hedge, choose any that appears in the list of lost species at the end of The Life and Death of a Flailed Cornish Hedge.

Don't scatter your precious seed along the hedge face and hope it will grow. Make little pockets of earth in the crevices between stones, plugging below with a bit of turf or a small stone to prevent your softened earth and seed from washing straight down from the hedge next time it rains. In each suitable crevice sow a tiny pinch, no more than three or four seeds. Either sow into the hedge in this way, preferably in autumn in imitation of nature's own way, or raise the seeds as plug plants and bed them into the hedge crevices in early spring. Make sure they don't dry out before they are established. If done well this may give a higher success rate than sowing direct into the hedge.

You can also collect seed locally if any can still be found without robbing the place where they are hanging on. Make sure you only take a little and leave most behind. Don't collect lots of seed from campion, foxglove and poppies. One tiny pinch of betony, yarrow, vetch, fumitory, trefoil, hawkweed, bedstraw, scabious etc, is far more valuable, as these are the ones that need most help and give a wider opportunity for insects. If you can only get one or two plants of these growing in your hedge, and let them ripen and seed, they will re-establish.

If no wild roses or native honeysuckle reappear, these can be planted into the middle of the top of the hedge, either as rooted cuttings or pot-grown plants. Autumn is the best time to plant.

PROJECT STAGE 5. Maintenance and aftercare.

It is as important and as interesting for the project to continue, in the years following.

The heavy infestation of weeds that the first stages of the project removed will try to return for some time to come. They need to be regularly removed as soon as they appear either in the form of woody regrowth, new plants from bits of root, or seedlings. Japanese knotweed will need to have all its baby shoots removed regularly until the crowns die. Over the first two or three years the shoots will appear in greater numbers but much weaker in size. It is crucial to continue removing them, perhaps three or four times between March and August, as soon as a new crop of sprouts appears. After three years they will suddenly give up, but it is still vital to go on removing any odd young sprout that appears. If you let just one escape your eagle eyes, it will begin to revitalise the root, and your wonderful work will be wasted.

Until the crevices between the stones refill naturally with leaf mould and wild flower growth, regeneration can be helped by seeding, adding more plugs with different local species, and casting up fallen or washed-down earth over the hedge face. Once the crevices are again packed tight with the healthy growth of a wide variety of wild flower species, fine grasses, mosses and ferns, and as long as this is never trimmed and is left undisturbed to grow, flower, seed and die back naturally every year, the invasive weeds will be virtually unable to return. Over time the unnatural fertility created by the years of flailing will fall, further encouraging the frugal native species and discouraging the greedy invaders.

Besides the increase in biodiversity there is a huge economic advantage to be gained from restoration of the natural system of the hedge. The need for trimming is reduced to a simple winter cut of light bramble growth from the hedge side, saving the massive annual amount of money and resources that has been squandered over the last fifty years on sending the flails out at all seasons to scalp every last inch of hedge, and actually destroying the hedges under the mistaken belief of maintaining them.

Your restored hedge and verge will only continue to recover and thrive as long as it is never again touched by a flail, strimmer or rotary mower. To prevent this you will need to inform the Highways authority that it is a community project hedge and will be suitably maintained by you. Hedges owned by the adjacent landowner will be trimmed by that person or their tenant, who may use a contractor for the job, so your request will need to be made to them. Attach a notice at each end of your hedge length directing flail operators please to stop trimming until they have passed the second notice.

Your side of the bargain is to make sure the hedge is correctly trimmed. Trees and shrubs along the top may need pruning back selectively in winter if any branch protrudes on to the highway or if heavy-topped bushes root-rock in the wind. In winter continue to cut out by hand any woody growth including brambles from between the stones of the hedge side, and in spring and summer remove any growth that seriously affects traffic visibility such as concealing a blind entrance, and any bramble whip that has grown since your winter trimming. The green leafy growth of the turfy, flowery, ferny hedge side is never trimmed. Apart from cow parsley and hogweed it will rarely grow out far enough to affect traffic, and will die back naturally in winter. Remove any invasive coarse weed or onion couch grass that reappears.

Ultimately, the only hope for widespread biodiverse recovery in hedges and verges, farmland, waste ground and meadows is for the flail type of trimmer to be discarded for ever, which may mean it has to be banned by law. The reciprocating scythe used in winter to remove woody growth from the hedge side and prevent it from invading the verge does the job properly and without harm to the wildlife and flora. The basic rule is, all woody growth must be removed from the stone sides of the hedge bank by a clean cut in winter, and all green growth of wild flowers, ferns and grasses between the stones is left permanently untouched. Woody growth on top of the hedge is maintained by selective pruning and coppicing.

Hopefully, you will have "got the bug" and will go on to restore more hedges in your area. Be part of a campaign to outlaw the flail and a concerted movement by the public to persuade the council, landowners and contractors to return to winter-trimming with a reciprocating scythe. See CHL How to Look After a Cornish Hedge and Advice for Trimming Roadside Hedges in Cornwall.

Your reward, after the enjoyment of healthy work in good company, will be to see your hedge increase in beauty and biodiversity as time goes by.

Roadside hedge in recovery from flailing.

Home