Laying a large hedge

Almost any size hedge can be cut and laid. This particular one is alongside a disused railway track and was probably planted around 1860. This was the first time it had been laid, some of the trunks were nearly 1ft across and had grown to around 20ft in hight.




Stage 1 Cut away all the brash around the sides so you can start cutting everything that is growning out to the sides.














Stage 2. Cut all the large stems off as far up as you can reach.










Stage 3. Now go and look at what's left. Remove all the large stems provided you have enough other material to lay.













Stage 4. Now lay what is left as normal. Most of this is chainsaw and large axe work. Even a large hedge can be laid to the narrow style that is common in Yorkshire hedge laying.

And this is the regrowth around three years later.

This hedge was laid in periods when the overnight temperature (Sinnington Manor) was as low as -16c.

I have heard and read that large hedges don't regrow as well as younger hedges and that low temperatures can kill off the laid stems.  This doesn't appear to have happened here.