Creating a dead hedge at The Bishop's Palace & Gardens, Wells

Senior Gardener, Aron Clay, shares his thoughts about the newly installed dead hedge in The Bishop's Palace's Arboretum.
The RSPB describes dead hedges as "hiding places and nesting habitats for all sorts of creatures, as well as food for insects. As it rots down, the nutrients are recycled back into the earth below, meaning your garden ‘waste’ needn’t go into garden bins or bonfires. Creating a dead hedge is an ongoing activity, which can be added to every time you prune a tree or cut back a shrub."
Read more about what a dead hedge is here: www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/...

[@denisedenis2907]

Wonderful idea! And good to share it.

[@barkershill]

How much were the stakes?

[@lis819]

…and…if you don’t mind me asking…how do you deal with weeds growing up in among the branches?

[@robertstallard7836]

You don't.
There's no such thing as a weed - merely a plant in the wrong place. Anything growing in a dead hedge is growing in the RIGHT place and is thoroughly encouraged!
As well as making use of otherwise waste brash, delineating an area and/or keeping animals out, a dead hedge provides shelter for wildlife. That wildlife includes both animals and plants and, as the hedge develops, lots of naturally-seeded plants will grow in it. indeed, birds sitting on top of it will drop seeds that will germinate amongst the rotting stuff at the bottom. This is all to the good and, over time, a dead hedge will become a living one as the dead stuff rots away and the living thrives on the nutrients thus produced.
The dead hedges in my woodland include living plants such as hazel that happened to be along the lie of the hedge when I laid it. To give the hedge a good start, I pleached these and bent them horizontal, intertwining the living branches with the dead, and I continue to do this as the years go by and the branches put out more shoots.

[@lis819]

@@robertstallard7836 thanks!