Creating Dead Hedges
Every year I let some part of our land get away from me and then it feels a bit overwhelming to try to bring it back from becoming a thicket. If we were in a more rural location I’d be less worried about keeping the edges “presentable.” Having a large lot (almost three acres) in neighborhood requires a bit more yard work to keep plants under control so they don’t spread onto the neighbors yards.
This month I started thinning out the dead wood from various stands of dogwood, removing excess wild raspberries, and other plants that were taking over. While most folks around here either haul their trimmings to the yard waste site, or burn it, I decided to make dead hedges in our woods along the back edge of our property. The dead hedges will provide habitat for various small animals, birds, insects, and fungi, while designating our property boundary. Depending on scale, they can also be used as livestock enclosures, or as a sort of fence to keep people or pets from walking into sensitive areas. They can even be made to create a bit of privacy in your yard or on your land. Dead hedges are also a carbon-efficient way of recycling biomass without the need to burn it or transport it somewhere off-site.
Dead hedge Royal Fort Gardens, Bristol, being used to separate a habitat area from a path. Photo by 14GTR, Creative Commons.
A dead hedge can be as simple as a stack of branches as shown in the photo at the very top of this article, or can have a tidier appearance by neatly layering branches and other yard debris between stakes made from thicker branches as seen in the photo above. This tidier design could even work well for standard sized yards. Overtime the branches will breakdown and decompose, allowing you to add more to your hedge as you do your trimming each year. Regardless of the style you choose to build, you may want to leave some openings to allow yourself to get through if you need to easily access the other side of the hedge. Openings will also allow deer or other animals to pass through your land, if you want that.
Depending on the location of your hedge, over time other plants may grow through it adding a living hedge aspect to it. Ours is in a heavily shady part of our woods so it may not grow much, but I could see a dead hedge in a more bramble friendly area becoming a hedge filled with raspberries.
Save yourself a trip to the yard waste site, help reduce air pollution by not burning yard waste, and build a dead hedge! Depending on the style you choose to build, it could add a nice natural and rustic feel to your land.
