Quick reference list of terms, definitions, and context around the traditional outdoor art of hedgelaying.

A is for angles. Pleaches should be laid at between 30 and 60 degrees to the horizontal. Meanwhile, successful grinding and polishing of blades involves paying close attention to the correct angles. A is also 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 especially useful for tasks that may otherwise be performed with a billhook. A is also for ash, a good hedge plant.
B is for billhook. An elongated axe like blade used for cutting, clearing, and cleaving tasks. B is also 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 lso 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. Meanwhile, 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, though, and is best cut back to the root from where it is likely to regrow.
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 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 Chaldon, in the North Downs near Croydon, whose church has a remarkable medieval wall painting. Robert laid hedges in the churchyard. Herewith a picture of Rev Helen Bennett and the finished project.
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.
D is for ditch. An ancient hedge, one laid many times in the past can be often identified by a ditch running alongside.
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 edge. Work is easier and safer if you have sharp tools. For best results keep the sides of the blade silver-clean while also keeping the edge razor sharp.
E is for elm. A good hedge plant.
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 first aid kit. Have one within easy reach.
F is for field maple, a hedge plant which is traditional 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 gloves – and grip. Rober 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 Glasgow. Robert helped his cousin Matthew and his wife Lizzie lay a hedge in nearby Garelochhead in October 2024.
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 spaces low-intensity spaces to be share by flora, fauna, and people.
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, and small mammals such as hedgehogs. 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. Horse chestnut is OK. Sweet chestnut is better.
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.
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.
L is for line. It is important to ensure the line of the hedge is as straight, or smoothly curving, as possible.
L is for leverage, and the acquired skill of using staves and blades to shift the positions of hedge parts.
L is loppers. One of four essential hedgelaying handtools. The others are, and axe, a billhook, a mallet, and a saw.
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 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 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.
O is for oak, a good hedge plant albveit ne 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.
P is for points. Stakes are often best sharpened at the thinner end. That way they will 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.
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 at points with smooth bark. If the saplines – artery-like routes within the fibres of the stem – are well ordered, 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 smooth and rough sections.
S is for sharp. Sharp tools make work is 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.
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).
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.
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 but 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.