Hedge Laying in my small Devon wood

Hedge laying and Base Camp 2

The long northern boundary to the wood running from the bottom garden gate entrance right to the beech-topped stone walling at the top was once a good hedge, mainly made up of hazel, ash and some blackthorn, elder and oak. There is some evidence of the hedge being grown on top of stone walling in the Devon style  but  my side is higher than the other where there's a ditch, so it's not easy to tell.

The hedge has long since grown out and come November it was a priority to sort out. Never having done hedge laying before my niece Merry came over with her kit and with me brandishing my birthday present billhook, we set to work.

We did the best we could with the state of the hedge as it was and Merry assured me that it looks bad before it gets better! I'll have to trust her on that. We left some standing trees and laid others as much as we could, filling gaps with dead hedging so as to keep Honey and Harvey on the right side.

It was satisfying work and after a day making the most of Merry's skill and knowledge I was confident enough to carry on alone over the coming weeks. Thanks Merry!

A little bit of our work.

Base Camp 2 was sited in the north-east corner of the wood. This location was chosen because there was a large fallen beech tree limb nearby needing to be harvested and kept dry. Up with the tarps then. Some kind of shelter is handy as well because it sometimes rains and the dogs can shelter and I can keep tools dry when it does.

Base Camp 2 and behind the large beech limb full of spalted timber

Plan A is to do something with what we are calling the 'chicken shed' which is in the middle of the wood and a block built shed with corrugated tin roof and pretty much derelict. We've cleared it out, removed the tree that fell across the roof and have been discussing how we rebuild it in the hobbit style with a grass roof... More of that in due course...