Quick reference list of terms, definitions, and context around the traditional skills of hedge laying
A is for angles. Pleaches – the cut stems – should should always be laid at an upwards angle because sap only rises. Stems die if they lie downhill. Also, successful grinding and polishing of blades means paying close attention to the angles of grind or polish.
A is for axe, a useful hedgelaying tool if you are sharpening your own stakes. A side axe – a blade with a flat face on one side and a regular bevelled face on the other – is useful for tasks that may otherwise be performed with a billhook.
A is for ash, a good hedge plant.
B is for billhook. An elongated axe-like blade used for cutting, clearing, and cleaving tasks.
B is so for binders (aka heathers). These are thin-ish coppice wood, about 12ft (2metres) in length used for holding the just-laid hedge in place while the plants regrow. They need to be flexible and therefore freshly cut.
B is also for blackthorn. An excellent hedge plant. Care is needed to avoid the sturdy spikes which may be cause skin irritation, or worse, if they prick near a knuckle or joint.
B is for bevel. Axe, billhook, and slasher blades need careful attention paid to their bevels to remain sharp, efficient and safe. In addtioin
B is for bramble, the giver of blackberries. A nice plant with lovely fruit which tends to get in the way during hedgelaying. It is best cut back to the root from where it is likely to regrow.
C is for clearing out. It ain’t the most exciting aspect of hedging but it may be the most important because it makes the rest possible. Don’t skimp. You need to clear down to bare earth around the roots of stems and cut foliage back so that each upright stem is free of snags on other stems, old fencing, overhead wires, and such like.
C is for conifers. Conifers – for example the Scots pine – cannot be used as hedgeplants because they don’t regrow in the way of most broad leaved trees native to British Isles. Lovely trees though.
C is for coppice. If you are planting a new hedge, you should also find land to plant a coppice. The coppice wood,which will grow at around the same pace as the hedge, will give nearby materal for the hedgelaying which should occur 7-10 years later. Hazel or sweet chestnut are ideal. Coppicing helps close the circles of hedge laying life – and saves money!
C is for chainsaw. An optional tool to be used only by those properly trained and deemed competent. A decent battery powered chainsaw with a 12in bar is more than adequate for most hedgelaying tasks.
C is for the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE). It is a charity at the forefront of hedgerow renovation in urban (as well as rural) locations. #cpre
C is for Chaldon, in the North Downs near Croydon, whose church has a remarkable medieval wall painting. Helped no end by voluteers, Robert laid hedges in the churchyard. Herewith a picture of Rev Helen Bennett and the finished project.
D is for ditch. An ancient hedge, one laid many times in the past can be often identified by a ditch running alongside. Some old hedges, notably those laid in the Devon and Dorset styles, are laid on banks.
D is for dogrose – a free-growing hedge plant left more for its pretty flowers and berries than its strength. It may need pruning more, and more aggressively, than other hedge plants.
D is for dead hedging. The use of live-hedging techniques to create a deadwood habitat – a different but still-valuable wildlife habit which rots to create nutrient-rich mulch.
E is for essentials. Remember the five essentials? A billhook or axe, a saw, some lopers, a rake, and a mallet.
E is for edge. Work is easier and safer if you have sharp tools. Keep the sides of the blade silver-clean and the edges razor sharp.
E is for elm. A good hedge plant.
E is for equinoxes. Prepare to sat hedging around the time of the autumn equinox (that is, 21 September) and aim to finish by the Spring equivalent, 21 March.
F is for first aid kit. Have one within easy reach.
F is for fence. Normally made of barbed or other wire, concrete, and/or milled wood. Not to be confused with *hedge*.
F is for field maple, a hedge plant which is traditionally left to grow into a tree to give longer hedges variety. The distance between so called ‘standers’ may be set to mark distance – say every 100 meters, roughly half a furlong to use the old measures.
G is for gardens where hedges can be laid to good effect notably in urban areas where hedges mark boundaries with pavements and roads. More widely, gardens thrive if managed in the ‘habitat’ style priortising the creation of low-intensity spaces to be shared by flora, fauna, and people.
G is for gloves – and grip. Robert tends to favour relatively cheap builders’ gloves rather than more expensive leather garden gloves or gauntlets. If you use leather gloves, it is often wise to take your strong-hand glove off if you get a better grip on the hand using a hand tool.
G is for Glasgow. Robert helped his cousin Matthew and his wife Lizzie lay a hedge in nearby Garelochhead in October 2024.
I is for eyes. Always protect your peepers.
I is for ivy. Great for bees, not great for hedges as it tends to smother growth.
H is for habitat hedging, a style which puts wildlife at the centre of the creative process. Habitat hedging enriches the diversity for birds, insects, small mammals such as hedgehogs, and frogs (see picture). It has a low-to-no requirement for bought-in materials; it recycles excess organic material and, for the most part, uses hand tools.
H is for hand tools. Traditional hedging uses hand tools, very traditionally a billhook was the only tool used.
H is for hazel, holly, hornbeam and hawthorn. All are excellent hedge plants. Hazel is one of the best for making stakes and binders. Sweet chestnut is also good. Ash and sycamore work.
H is for heathers – another name for binders.
H is for hand sanitiser. Medical-grade ethanol helps cleaning and sharpening tools.
H is for helmet. If using a chainsaw, wear one with a visor.
L is for line. It is important to ensure the line of the hedge is as straight, or smoothly curving, as possible. As pictured here with a curve at Regent’s Park, London.
L is for leverage, and the acquired skill of using staves and blades to shift the positions of hedge parts.
L is for loppers. One of five essential hedgelaying handtools. The others are a rake, a billhook or axe, a mallet, and a pruning saw.
M is for Mudshute, the urban farm on London’s Isle of Dogs, a stone’s throw from Canary Wharf, where Robert laid a heavy blackthorn hedge in 2022.
M is for mallet. Hedgelayers need a beefy tool to bang in stakes, assist with splitting logs, and firm down, or tighten, binders near the end of the hedging process. A chunk offcut of log, or and iron-headed club hammer, or even a sledgehammer, can be used for similar jobs.
M is for mix. If planting a new hedge, use a mixture of varieties
M is for mobile phone. Always have one in easy reach, or an a pocket, for raising the alarm in emergencies.
N is for neatness. A net hedge is pleasing on the eye and helps show hedge laying skills in good light. If one has neat stakes and binders it is relatively easy to make a hedge look neat – competition standard, even (see picture, ish). The “habitat” hedging style usually deployed by Septimus Works re-uses and recycles material found on site, or nearby. Local sourcing often means the stakes and binders are uneven and the finished hedge therefore looks more, er, rustic.
O is for oak, a good hedge plant albeit one that grows quite slowly.
P is for pleach as in “to pleach” or “a pleach”. The skill of cutting a hedge-plant stem so that it a) stays alive; b) leans or lays as required; and c) regrows with vigour. Pleaching is a delicate procedure. Robert uses a saw to make an angled cut about two-thirds through a stem and then a blade (an axe or billhook) as a lever to split the stem down into the root. Getting the cut right, in terms of direction, and relative to horizontal and vertical planes, is critical. So is unpicking even the smallest of snags. Correctly done, the stem will fold gently and be guided into position. It should not need any significant force. Nor should it fall with a crash that migh damage the thinner and exposed pleach.
P is for process. Hedgelaying – renovating a line of existing plants to bring them back to healthy habitat and usefulness – falls in to three parts. Clearing, the first part, is followed by pleaching and completed by staking & binding. for pleach as in to pleach or a pleach. The skill of cutting a hedge-plant stem so that it a) stays alive; b) leans or lays as required; and c) regrows with vigour.
P is for points. Stakes are often best sharpened at the thinner end. That way they go into the ground more easily.
P is for pruning saw, a useful tool for cutting and pleaching hedge plant stems. Silky brand pruning saws are a favourite.
Q is for questions. Good hedgelayers are always asking themselves questions about what, when, and how, the next part of the process should be approached.
Q is for quckthorn. The common variety of hawthorn which grows fast relative to the Old English or Midland variety. If you see one of the older varieties it may be a sign that the hedge is anciet, that is dating from 400 or more years ago before the Enclosures Act which saw quickthorn hedges planted as stock-proof barriers before the development of barbed wire.
R is for risk. As with almost every activity, hedgelaying is risky. There are big risks, such as those posed by overhead wires, and small risks such as trip hazards. Formal risk assessment procedures are often advisable. Being aware, and taking care, is essential.
R is for regrowth. An laid hedge is not finished until Ma Nature has worked her wonders, taken the bare frame created by the Hedgelaying, and covered it with fresh green growth.
R is for Robert – Septimus Works’ chief hedgelayer.
R is for Ruby – Septimus Works’ apprentice hedgelayer, pictured sharpening stakes..
R is for rake, often invaluable for clearing out at ground level. A billhook can be used similarly, as if it were a one-pronged rake.
R is for Regent’s Park, in London, where Robert gave hedgelaying training to a group of rangers and volunteers.
S is for saw. A small, sharp, hand or pruning saw is needed. ‘Silky’ brand folding saws are excellent. On bigger hedges, it may be practical to use a chainsaw.
S is for saplines. If possible, it is best to pleach on stems with smooth bark. Saplines are artery-like routes within the fibres of the stem. If they are well ordered, they are flexible and well made for stout pleaches. It is not impossible to pleach where the bark is rough or broken, but it is harder. The picture shows a stem with smoother bark lower down and and rough sections further up. It is essential to clear leaf and other litter at the base in order to make informed judgements about how and when to cut the stems.
S is for snags. It is important to ensure each stem is free of the entanglements in the canopy above. Even titchy snags can ruin the quite delicate, and skilful, art of pleaching.
S is for sharp. Sharp tools make work easier and safer. Of course, hedgelayers need to be careful but hacking at stems with blunt tools is more dangerous than clean cleaving with razor sharp equipment. Phil Hart, one of the most knowledgeable South of England hedge layers made “use sharp tools” the first of his Ten Commandments of Good Pleaching.
S is for slasher, a billhook-type tool with a long handle which comes in handy for cutting at height.
S is for stake, a pole with a sharpened end placed upright in a newly laid hedge to give structure while the plants regrow. Stakes are usually deployed in conjunction with binders (aka heathers). You need coppice-wood stakes and binders to make a newly laid hedge sturdy for the year or two it needs to put on self-supporting regrowth.
T is for tools. You need a rake, a pair of loppers, a saw, a billhook or axe, and a mallet.
T is for tarrif. The screenshot comes from the South of England Hedge Laying Society (SEHLS) using prices determined by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra). Note that the schedule does not include the cost of raw materials – stakes and binders – which come in at around £5 per metre.
T is for timing. Do things in the right prder or you’ll come a cropper. There are a couple of dozen woodland skills to master. Most, such as pointing stakes and weaving in the binders, are easily learnt. Acquiring the subtle instinct of timng, like pleaching, is rather harder.
T is for tension, probably the most important physical force in hedgelaying. It binds while giving strength and structure to the newly laid hedge.
T is for trench. One way to plant a new hedge is to dig a trench about 18in (500mm) wide and about 6in (150mm) deep. Place the plants in a zigzag on either side of the trench, back fill with leaf mould compost or similar, firm down with your boot, and leave Ma Nature to do the rest. Water well if it’s dry.
T for testimonials, as in those from Anna-Maria Cahalane-Macguinness (pictured) of
Buckthorne Cutting Nature Reserve, and Tom Davis, the Mudshute Farm, Park and Open Space Manager.
T is for trousers. Wear them. If using a chainsaw, wear proper chainsaw trousers.
U is for urban. Septimus Works is a specialist urban hedgelaying business.
U is for unique. Successful hedgelaying means never doing exactly the same thing twice.
U is for underwood. It is the branch (groan) of aboriculcuture including hedging and coppicing. An underwoodsman or underwoodswoman is not, therefore the title of a second-in-command but a leader in the underwood. NB. Forestry is felling big trees. Those that climb trees with ropes and harnesses fall into a third category.
V is for volunteers: an invaluable resource for guardians of public urban green spaces. Septimus Works is well placed to lead groups of volunteers – and professional gardeners and park rangers. We do talks, demonstrations and instruction. The picture shows Steve helping Robert on hedgerow renovations at Chaldon Church, near Croydon in the North Downs of east Surrey.
W is for what and when. Hedgelaying is neither technically difficult nor strenuous, but it is important to things in the right sequence.
W is for waste. Plastic, metal and glass litter is binned. The habitat style of hedging recycles or composts most if not all excess organic material.
Z is for zigzag – the linear pattern used to plant saplings in a new hedge or infilling gaps in an old hedge.