Hedgelaying - the Ultimate Bushcraft Activity?

[Klenchblaize]

Why is the call always get the unemployed to do it? As if they are all a bunch of lazy good for nothings who don't want to work. I did my BTCV stuff while unemployed for a year. No pay. Untill I got a part time job with them. It wasn't a big pay packet and I still had to claim some benefits. But I most certainly did not sit on my butt smoking and drinking all day! Just cos tv shows a few slackers in an effort to shame people like that into work.... which is never going to work... everyone gets tarred with the same brush and it makes me cross. Being unemployed isn't fun! Been there got the t shirt! I'll say no more as I don't want to get into a war of words but actually I find that attitude very hurtful as would the majority of unemployed people.. love grumpy guts.

I forgot to mention marching them to the woods in a chaingang-like manner so thanks for the oppertunity to put that right!

How about the following?

Put all those unemployed outdoor enthusiasts who - try as they might - cannot secure employment in the great outdoors to work hedglaying.

In addition to being paid an attractive hourly rate, all those signing up will be issued, FOC, with Ray Mears woodland axe.

K

 

[Toddy]

My friend from North Yorkshire is a hedgelayer and makes stone walls too. I watched him work and had a small go too. He's handy with axes and the other cutting tools he uses. Pretty good with chainsaw too, Not sure he'd build a cabin too good =-but he's handy around camp with anything sharp when he's been with us. we don't do anything like this up here so maybe that makes us no good at what you call bushcraft. The first time he came out with us we watched him closely as wondered whether he would be any good with knives or tools as i would not trust all visitors we sometimes get. He turned out real good and handy.

Ah, it's the 'bushcraft' definition thing, isn't it ?

Here it's just an accumulation of practical skills using natural resources, that greatly enrich our lives; elsewhere it's how folks live their lives.

 

[Laurentius]

I know next to nothing about the art of drystone walling, however it is actually gravity that does all the work for you. I have made an admittedly low wall from rubble I have dug up and it stays up. There are some folk who like to go on courses to learn a variety of traditional skills, and I expect they will end up better at them than me, but there are also people like me, who just like to have a go, in their own space and time, figuring it out by trial and error.

 

[John Fenna]

I have done a very short length of drystone walling - about 20' - alongside my driveway and I have planted and maintained a hedge around my garden....
I went on no courses but read widely before commencing the works. Neither have failed yet!
I do not lay the hedge in a traditional way but instead I weave in the new long growth or give the hedge a neat haircut with the billhook or machete.
I also harvest firewood from the trees in the hedge and have pollarded one of the willows that I planted - so I get some decent poles for bushy projects such as tripod, table and walking pole making. I planted Ash and Sycamore - transplanting seedlings from the road verge and cultivated bits of the garden, Willow from my fathers garden and some Crabapples from commercial sources: Holly, Hazel and Hawthorn have self seeded in the hedge The garden is full of birds from Wrens to Rooks, we have had visiting Badgers and Hedgehogs, Squirrels are a constant pest and various rodents dig holes all around...
I also rob some of the local field hedges (with permission) of decent poles just before the hedge flail is due to come and trash the hedges....
Playing with hedges is fun and rewarding

 

[66jj99]

Just wanted to give a shout out to "dead hedging".

It's much more low tech/skilled but still a really valid technique to encourage biodiversity of fungi, insects birds and mammals in any site or garden.


One added benifit is that you get to use cleared brush or tree prunings that would need to be mulched binned or burned.

• Cut and bang in a row of 2"ish stakes an arm span apart. - Add another row about 18" in front.

• Chuck brush / trimmings in the middle. - both little and big suff if available, any rotting logs are perfect too. -Stomp it all down a bit.

• Top it up as it all breaks down.

Fun, easy and pretty inclusive.

 

[Toddy]

.....but unless you really want a hedge there, be aware of willow, hazel, elder, ash, etc., which will happily root and take off if they're in touch with damp ground anywhere along that line.

It's actually a very good way to start a hedge