Hedging

This is in response to the post on ST's blog...

This is about the only quarter mile of properly layered hedge in Northumberland. It is along the main road just south of Amble, as you can see by the newly visible litter ( that its near a main road I mean, not that its near Amble).

I was going to call this post 'thats the way to do it' but you know, I'm not so sure. It still looks pretty severe to me. This hedge cutting mullarky is all very strange. In this county ALL hedges are routinely flailed into 5 ft high boxes with gaping holes through the bases. Where I live, even hedges out between open fields get the treatment. Why? They all have post and wire fencing anyway and flailing certainly doesn't keep the bases thick, in fact the opposite is true. I hear that farmers are suffering from high production costs etc so why not save man hours and diesel for the tractor and only do hedges about every third or fourth year or something on a rotational basis?

Here's the rub though. At Longhoughton a farmer ( with the greenest and neatest farm around, nice green grass and neat clipped hedges) has recieved funding for conservation by planting several hundred metres of hedging a few years back and already he flails them to pieces. I've seen more cover on a wire coat hanger. He has newly planted Whitebeams along the road side and he's hacked the tops off those too!

Wildlife here is thin on the ground, though a recent newspaper article showed that he is proud of his conservation efforts?!?

Maybe I just don't get this country life...(that I've lived for the last 44 years).