Best laid plans

The ancient craft of hedgelaying is playing a central role in efforts to restore the balance of nature on our farms

- MARCUS ARMYTAGE

YOU MAY have noticed more and more pockets of beautifully laid hedges as you travel the countryside. Hedgelaying is back or, at least, we are seeing some shoots of revival of this ancient craft. Earlier this year, I achieved a long-held ambition to have a section of hedge laid. It was only about 50 yards – or two and a half chains, a measurement I last encountered as an estate management student at the Royal Agricultural College in the early 1980s – ostensibly to let light into my kitchen garden but also to do a small bit for wildlife.

With a bit more education, I hope to do the next section myself but this was done in Midland style by David Jupe, a local gardener who was taught as a boy by the now-defunct Oxfordshire Hedgelaying Group. Technically it is a craft but his work is borderline art. The result is amazing: a patchy, leggy hedge that was probably untouched for 20 years has been reinvigorated. It is tight so not only stockproof but I dare say a weasel, let alone a fox, would struggle to find its way in or my dogs a way out. The newly returned daylight on the garden has given rise to orchids, cornflower, ox-eye daisies, agrimony, cowslip and corn marigold, none of which were present last year.