Planting a Hedge to Support Garden Birds

Why a Native Hedge Does More Than a Fence

A drystone wall or a post-and-rail fence will hold your sheep and mark your boundary, but it offers very little to a wren, a dunnock or a pair of bullfinches. A hedge — particularly one built from the plants that have grown in our countryside for thousands of years — is a different proposition altogether. It is a larder, a nursery, a windbreak and a motorway, all in one strip of greenery.

The key word is native. Our native shrubs have evolved alongside our insects, and our insects have evolved alongside our birds. A native hawthorn will carry dozens of species of moth caterpillar; an ornamental evergreen from a garden centre will carry a handful. Since almost every small bird feeds its chicks on caterpillars and grubs in spring, that difference matters more than any berry crop.

Choosing Species for Exposed and Upland Sites

On a moorland edge or a windswept hillside, you cannot simply copy a lowland hedgerow mix. Choose plants that will shrug off wind, driving rain and late frosts.

• Hawthorn — the backbone of any British hedge. Thorny, tolerant, dense, flowering in May and carrying haws deep into winter.
• Blackthorn — the earliest blossom, sloes in autumn and thick, almost impenetrable nesting cover. Best on slightly heavier, limier soils.
• Holly — slow but superb. Evergreen, fiercely prickly, and a lifeline for blackbirds and thrushes when the ground freezes hard.
• Rowan — happy at altitude, with berries that vanish fast in autumn.
• Hazel — good nuts, early catkins for bees, and useful in the calmer lee of the hedge.
• Guelder rose, dog rose and dogwood — smaller, but rich in berries and blossom. Excellent for filling out a mixed run.

Aim for a mix, with hawthorn or blackthorn making up roughly 60 to 70 per cent of it. Diversity gives you a longer season of food, and if one species suffers in a bad year, the hedge still does its job.

Laying Out the Hedge

For a garden boundary, plant a single row at 30–45cm apart. For something that must also hold stock or stand up to serious wind, use a double staggered row — two rows 45cm apart, with the plants offset — at roughly five plants per metre. Staggering makes the hedge thicker at the base, which is exactly where small birds want to nest.

Run the hedge along the line you intend to keep. Think about the sun: a hedge running east to west casts shade to the north, so if you have a vegetable patch or a sitting-out spot, keep the hedge on the south-western side so it shelters you without burying the garden in shadow. Leave at least a metre from any wall or fence, and more from a building, so you can reach both sides with the trimmer.

Planting Bare-Root in the Dormant Season

Bare-root whips are cheaper, establish better and come with far less plastic than pot-grown stock. Plant between November and March, but avoid frozen ground and anything standing in water. On peaty or heavy moorland soils, fork over the strip first and mix in some well-rotted manure or compost; if the soil is very acidic, a sprinkling of garden lime will help hawthorn and blackthorn along.

• Soak the roots for an hour before planting if they look dry.
• Firm the soil around each plant with your heel — no air pockets.
• Fit a spiral guard and a cane to every whip. Rabbits, hares, deer and voles will otherwise nibble them to nothing.
• Mulch with bark chip or wool fleece in a 60cm circle, keeping it clear of the stems.
• Water well through the first two summers in dry spells, especially on thin or light soils.

Cutting to Keep the Birds Fed

This is where most hedges fail their wildlife. The urge to tidy is strong, but a hedge trimmed every September will never flower, never fruit and never nest. Cut in late winter, between January and the end of February, and remember that it is an offence to cut a hedge containing a nesting bird. The nesting season runs roughly from March to August, so don't be tempted.

Better still, trim on a rotation. Take one side one winter, the other the next, and top it every second or third year. Cut it into a slight A-shape so light reaches the base and the hedge doesn't go bare and leggy underneath. Lay a hedge properly every ten to fifteen years if you want it to live for a century — a laid hedge with a dense, tangled base is the finest bird habitat on any smallholding.

The Bits Around the Edges That Make a Difference

Leave a rough strip of long grass at the foot of the hedge and don't strim it until late summer. That tussocky margin is where yellowhammers and dunnocks forage and where countless insects overwinter. Let honeysuckle or bramble scramble through one section — blackcaps and whitethroats love nothing better.

Add a shallow dish of water nearby, and site your feeders within a few feet of the hedge so birds have cover while they queue. Plant a crab apple or a wild cherry at the end of the run and you will have blossom and berries right through the year. Do all of that, and within three or four seasons your hedge will be busy with birds from first light.