Certainly an option if you don’t need a hedge for a while.

A well maintained hedge is so much nicer to look at. It's a product of years of work, hedge growth, planning and management.

Good question gardenmad3, as an enthusiastic pruner of anything I can lay me hands on, I would, without knowledge, think the same as you. I am lucky enough to remember seeing Hedgers at their work, as I was driven down country lanes, and for my folks to explain what they were doing. Your reasonable suggestion, on the face of things, would immediately result in no hedge as a barrier, for whatever it's intentional purpose was. Then it would take years to regrow to a useful length, required to repair the hedge. In the meantime there'd be the potential for rot or infection of the stumps, leaving permanent gaps in the hedge. Hedging works with nature. Plants have evolved to cope with damage. It might look harsh but it is effective. Hedging is an ancient art/craft that has preserved the landscape since early times. It wouldn't be in evidence today if all we did was chop it all down and start again. The balance is the art of the woodsman, or the coppicer (who is growing a crop). Hedging is using a living resource to create barriers that can retain stock, prevent erosion so that lanes remain passable, or so that banks don't collapse. The craft originates from a time when tools were few but the connection to the land and nature was essential, giving us dry stone walls, terracing/contouring, gravity based irrigation, crop rotation, fire-based soil improvement, companion planting, moving with the crop/food source and enhancing, rather than detrimenting the environment. Hard pruning to create young, straight and flexible growth would be the go in establishing a new hedge but this dude was skillfully restoring and old one. Apologies for the know-it-all tone, just answering a question reasonably put. Cheers.

@@paulmckenzie4291 Great reply, Paul. I have a question about coppicing new hedges- are you saying that a good way to start a new hedge is to plant the bushes, let them grow for a few years, and then coppice so that there will be thicker new growths to lay in a few more years? Thanks.

@@badgoy8439 Sorry Bad Goy, I am in the habit of hitting wrong buttons and clearing messages, alerts and notifications before I get time to respond. I have now been made aware of how to see what I've commented on and replies likes etc so welcome me to a new level of KZbin competence! Let me qualify my answer your question by saying I am not a hedger but I am a landscaper and the skills demonstrated in the clip we have both commented on are used in other applications. Sooo... There are many species of shrub/tree that will make a good hedge. Ornamental hedges are created by close planting of one or more species with dense growth habit and allowing them to compete, as they grow, which will force upward growth. Depending on the species and your climate, once the growth is sufficiently vigorous use your preferred tool (shears, hedge trimmers, pruners, chainsaw) to uniformly remove one third of the top growth and shape each side. This can make an effective, and attractive barrier for most residential purposes. Repeating this over time with cause the plants to compete sideways, thus creating the effect of a solid barrier. However... If you're trying to create barriers to livestock then the same principal applies in the planting but you'll need to stick to more traditional species like hawthorn, blackthorn and similar species that, when hard pruned or coppiced, will send up straight new growth. Hard pruning should always be done in dormancy which, with deciduous species is once all leaves have dropped. Climate will affect when a plant is dormant and climate change is causing many of them to be confused. Late winter and early spring are the safest. For a new barrier hedge you would probably want to prune alternate shrubs in the first few seasons to maintain some density of growth. The time between prunings would allow new growth to be of a useful height/length to weave in and provide stakes to hold the weave. I hope this helps. Always observation of what's happening around you wherever you are will be the best guide. The origins of barrier hedging surely comes from our ancient forebears seeing how fallen trees continued to grow. I reckon they had a fair bit of time on their hands as they didn't have Netflix or KZbin to suck up their time! Cheers

It depends where your from, ebay is a very good source, I wouldn't buy cheaply made ones. English made ones are probably the best but of course there are many different makes and makers, you also have many different patterns the one hes using in the video is known as a Yorkshire billhook. Hope this helps.

Try rural antique shops or agricultural suppliers as there are so many varieties of Billhooks

Morris of Dunsford is the one he's using theyre made in england and good but need a bit of sharpening. That is if you cant find one at a local flea market. Yorkshire billhooks a good allrounder.

Any farm sales you will find all the old decent made tools.

I wish I knew this practice when I was spending time in the overgrown lands of Massachusetts. Hedgelaying is an unknown art there. People just plant bushes and trim them back without knowing how to make a hedgerow or what coppicing is, let alone how to do it.

i guess it's kind of randomly asking but does anybody know a good site to stream newly released tv shows online ?

@Emmanuel Kamden flixportal :D

@Diego Philip thank you, signed up and it seems like a nice service :D I really appreciate it!!

@Emmanuel Kamden glad I could help :D

You have to lay that way, or generally the pleacher will snap - you would get too tight an angle over the stool if you bent the stem the other way. All styles that I know of (and I know a lot of professional and master hedgelayers a million time better than me) lay this way.

Yeah my dad did cut side down to heal better. Didn't know people did cut side up.

Don't get so upset Pete, having a few people like him around makes the rest of us look good

Not upset more gob smacked,blokes a feckin liability to say the least.

Hawthorn or Blackthorn by the looks.

Alex Murphy Pretty much all hawthorn.

Thanks, it's always harder though video.

Thanks. I appreciate the info!

These were very very brittle, old hawthorns.

I'd love to learn from you Brits and also learn and compare Japanese techniques. I had to handle my parents' overgrown acre+ outside of Boston and no one out there knows these techniques. They just pay money for new bushes, plant them and then wonder how they got overgrown. All that's done is trimming back. No hedging or coppicing techniques are used or (I suspect) known.