A hedge or hedgerow is a line of shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate a road from adjoining fields or one field from another, and are of sufficient age to incorporate larger trees, are known as hedgerows. Often they serve as windbreaks to improve conditions for the adjacent crops, as in bocage country. When clipped and maintained, hedges are also a simple form of topiary. Hedges and Hedgerows are usually no wider than about three feet (one meter).
A hedge often operates as, and sometimes is called, a "live fence". This may either consist of individual fence posts connected with wire or other fencing material, or it may be in the form of densely planted hedges without interconnecting wire. This is common in tropical areas where low-income farmers can demarcate properties and reduce maintenance of fence posts that otherwise deteriorate rapidly. Many other benefits can be obtained depending on the species chosen.
History
The development of hedges over the centuries is preserved in their structure. The first hedges enclosed land for cereal crops during the Neolithic Age (4000–6000 years ago). The farms were of about , with fields about for hand cultivation. Some hedges date from the Bronze and Iron Ages, 2000–4000 years ago, when traditional patterns of landscape became established. Others were built during the Medieval field rationalisations; more originated in the industrial boom of the 18th and 19th centuries, when heaths and uplands were enclosed.
Many hedgerows separating fields from lanes in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Low Countries are estimated to have been in existence for more than seven hundred years, originating in the medieval period. The root word of 'hedge' is much older: it appears in the Old English language, in German (Hecke), and Dutch (haag) to mean 'enclosure', as in the name of the Dutch city The Hague, or more formally 's Gravenhage, meaning The Count's hedge. Charles the Bald is recorded as complaining in 864, at a time when most official fortifications were constructed of wooden palisades, that some unauthorized men were constructing haies et fertés; tightly interwoven hedges of hawthorns.Rouche, Michel, "Private life conquers state and society," in A History of Private Life vol I, Paul Veyne, editor, Harvard University Press 1987 , p. 428
In parts of Britain, early hedges were often destroyed to make way for the manorial open-field system. Many were replaced after the inclosure acts, then removed again during modern agricultural intensification, and now some are being replanted for wildlife. As of 2024 in a study using Lidar by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology England alone was found to have a total of 390,000 km of hedgerows, which would span the circumference of the earth 10 times; at their greatest historical extent, Britain had 1,000,000 km of hedgerows.
Composition A hedge may consist of a single species or several, typically mixed at random. In many newly planted British hedges, at least 60 per cent of the shrubs are hawthorn, blackthorn, and (in the southwest) hazel, alone or in combination. The first two are particularly effective barriers to livestock. In North America, Maclura pomifera (i.e., hedge apple) was grown to form a barrier to exclude free-range livestock from vegetable gardens and corn fields.Barlow, Connie. "Anachronistic fruits and the ghosts who haunt them." Arnoldia 61, no. 2 (2001): 14–21. Other shrubs and trees used include holly, beech, oak, ash, and willow; the last three can become very tall. Of the hedgerows in the Normandy region of France, Martin Blumenson said,
The hedgerow is a fence, half earth, half hedge. The wall at the base is a dirt parapet that varies in thickness from one to four or more feet and in height from three to twelve feet. Growing out of the wall is a hedge of hawthorn, brambles, vines, and trees, in thickness from one to three feet. Originally property demarcations, hedgerows protect crops and cattle from the ocean winds that sweep across the land.
The hedgerows of Normandy became barriers that slowed the advance of Allied troops following the D-Day invasion during World War II. Allied armed forces modified their armored vehicles to facilitate breaking out of their beachheads into the Normandy bocage.
Species Formal, or modern garden hedges are grown in many varieties, including the following species: Berberis thunbergii – native to Japan and eastern Asia Buxus sempervirens (box) – native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and southwest Asia, from southern England south to northern Morocco, and east through the northern Mediterranean region to Turkey. Carpinus betulus (European hornbeam) – native to Western Asia and central, eastern, and southern Europe, including southern England. Crataegus monogyna (hawthorn) – native to Europe, northwestern Africa, and West Asia Fagus sylvatica (European green beech) – native from northern Europe, in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Bulgaria, eastern parts of Russia, Romania, through central Europe to France, southern England, northern Portugal, central Spain, and east to northwest Turkey where it intergrades with the oriental beech (Fagus orientalis) Fagus sylvatica 'Purpurea' (European purple beech) – a variant of the above Ilex aquifolium (European holly) – native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and southwest Asia Ligustrum ovalifolium (privet) – native to Japan and Korea Ligustrum × ibolium (north privet) – native to Japan and Korea Photinia × fraseri (red robin) – a hybrid between Photinia glabra and Photinia serratifolia, native to Japan, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and India, respectively Prunus laurocerasus (common cherry-laurel) – native to regions bordering the Black Sea in southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe, from Albania and Bulgaria east through Turkey to the Caucasus Mountains and northern Iran Prunus lusitanica (Portuguese cherry-laurel) – native to southwestern France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and Macaronesia (the Azores, Canary Islands and Madeira) Quercus ilex (holm oak) – native to the Mediterranean region Taxus baccata (yew) – native to Western Europe, Central Europe and Southern Europe (including Great Britain and Ireland), Northwest Africa, northern Iran, and Southwest Asia Thuja occidentalis (yellow ribbon; northern white cedar) – native to eastern Canada and much of the north-central and northeastern United States Thuja plicata (western red cedar) – native to the Pacific Northwest of North America
Hedgerow trees
Hedgerow trees are trees that grow in hedgerows but have been allowed to reach their full height and width. There are thought to be around 1.8 million hedgerow trees in Britain (counting only those whose canopies do not touch others) with perhaps 98% of these being in England and Wales. Hedgerow trees are both an important part of the English landscape and valuable habitats for wildlife. Many hedgerow trees are veteran trees and therefore of great wildlife interest.
The most common species are English oak (Quercus robur) and ash (Fraxinus excelsior), though in the past field elm (Ulmus minor 'Atinia') would also have been common. Around 20 million elm trees, most of them hedgerow trees, were felled or died through Dutch elm disease in the late 1960s. Many other species are used, notably including common beech (Fagus sylvatica) and various nut and fruit trees.
The age structure of British hedgerow trees is old because the number of new trees is not sufficient to replace the number of trees that are lost through age or disease.
New trees can be established by planting but it is generally more successful to leave standard trees behind when laying hedges. Trees should be left at no closer than apart and the distances should vary so as to create a more natural landscape. The distance allows the young trees to develop full crowns without competing or producing too much shade.
It is suggested that hedgerow trees cause gaps in hedges but it has been found that cutting some lower branches off lets sufficient light through to the hedge below to allow it to grow.
Importance of hedgerows Hedges are recognised as part of a cultural heritage and historical record and for their great value to wildlife and the landscape. Increasingly, they are valued too for the major role they have to play in preventing soil loss and reducing pollution, and for their potential to regulate water supply and to reduce flooding. There is increased earthworm diversity in the soils under hedgerows which also help to store organic carbon and support distinct communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. Alt URL
In addition to maintaining the health of the environment, hedgerows also play a huge role in providing shelter for smaller animals like birds and insects. A recent study by Emma Coulthard mentioned the possibility that hedgerows may act as guides for moths, like Acronicta rumicis, when flying from one location to another. As moths are nocturnal, it is highly unlikely that they use visual aids as guides, but rather are following sensory or olfactory markers on the hedgerows.Coulthard, E., 2015. Habitat and landscape-scale effects on the abundance and diversity of macromoths (Lepidoptera) in intensive farmland. The University of Northampton. Larkin et al. 2013 find 100% of northwest European farms have hedges, providing 43% of the wildlife habitat there.
Historically, hedges were used as a source of firewood, and for providing shelter from wind, rain and sun for crops, farm animals and people. Today, mature hedges' uses include screening unsightly developments.
Hedgerows have been removed as part of the transition of arable land from low-intensity to high-intensity farming. The removal of hedgerows gives larger fields making the sowing and harvesting of crops easier, faster and cheaper, and giving a larger area to grow the crops, increasing yield and profits. As the land within a few metres of hedges is difficult to plough, sow, or spray with herbicides, the land around hedges also typically includes high plant biodiversity. Hedges also serve to stabilise the soil and on slopes help prevent soil creep and leaching of minerals and plant nutrients. Removal thus weakens the soil and leads to erosion. Hedges' roots provide healthy moisture to deep soil; hedges also mitigate water runoff and flooding.
United Kingdom
Hedgerows have an especially rich history in the British Isles. In the United Kingdom, hedgerows serve as important wildlife corridors, providing shelter from predators. They also serve as a habitat for butterflies and other animals—ecologist Rob Wolton documented over 2,000 different species over two years within a single 90-meter hedge.
Hedgerow removal has been occurring in the UK since World War I as technology made intensive farming possible, and the increasing population demanded more food from the land. Hedge removal was subsidised following World War II; in the following years, the amount of hedgerow in the UK greatly decreased. Per The Economist:
Over time, the British government moved to protect hedgerows. According to The Economist, "Hedges—and their inhabitants—have been among the few winners of Brexit"; with independent farm policy, the government has increasingly compensated farmers for providing public goods such as maintaining hedges, with farmers being "paid £70m for tending to hedgerows in 2024, up from £26m the year before."
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