This Hedge Row in Ireland Has an Important Lesson to Teach Us

[@Kate-v9d]

Thank you Reagan. Yes we love our hedgerows, just like the UK and many European countries. It's preserving wildlife, ladybirds, berries for the birds and animals etc. We just love them! Thanks for the upload Reagan, love from Ireland xx

[@ClaireWhelan-s8l]

Hedgerows are roadways for little creatures. They can travel in safety through them from place to place. We need to protect them and the beautiful wildlife they sustain.

[@taxusbaccata6332]

That “foreign plant” is gorse and is native - a pioneer plant nitrogen fixing too. Makes a great hedging plant.

[@marykilgarriff2337]

The bush you spotted is a furze/gorse bush. It blooms with vibrant yellow flowers from February until the beginning of June. It grows in hedgerows all 9ver the country. It is a prickly, evergreen sturdy bush. Best wishes from Ireland 🇮🇪. I hope you enjoyed your holiday 😀

[@ReaganSchrock]

Thank you! Yes it was lovely.

[@saorgaza6068]

Yes and here in Tyrone we call it a Whin bush. It's one of my favourite native plants, for it's bright yellow blossom and their strong coconut like scent.

[@roneli3]

It has a wonderful scent!

[@davidfox7983]

Called ditches in Ireland

[@michellebyrom6551]

You'd enjoy Oliver Rackham: The History of the Countryside. He examines the use of different landscapes and the use of various plants in GB. For the most part, it also applies to Ireland due to centuries of administration by England. Hedges should have at least 4 plant species in them. If I remebet the formula correctly, every species above that number indicates another century of existence. The one in the video is likely a mediaeval wall and will have spring and summer flowers too. That lane is wide enough for a horse and cart. Where you see a road with trees and hedgerow on one side, you know the other side is where it was widened, most likely in the 20th century.

[@Mancozeb100]

Interesting comments here. A point that I’d like to throw into the mix, is about language and how we interpret our surroundings by the kind of vocabulary or language that we use. It always hurts me when I hear Americans (usually) refer to “soil” and “earth” as “dirt”. The soil and earth is what we farm, and what produces the food we, or our farm animals eat. So, it’s never referred to here as “dirt” - which we would associate with something dirty, unclean, unwanted. It’s pretty much the same in the UK. It strikes me as one of the indicators of the disconnect between people in the U.S. and their environment. That bank of soil on the wall would generally be referred to as an earth bank, or earthen bank, rather than “dirt bank”. What d’yall think about that ??!!

[@Patmofar]

And 'soil' refers to human waste, so how come it does not "hurt you" to use the word in a different context as the Yanks do with the word dirt?

[@Mancozeb100]

@ … emmm … because of the … context ! Happy Christmas. Or Yuletide.

[@Patmofar]

@@Mancozeb100 Exactly - CONTEXT, I am glad that you finally got there in the end, but you still have not explained why you get upset when a Yank calls the soil dirt. Strange that when you claim to understand context. Seasons greetings to you.

[@Mancozeb100]

@ Just that over here, on this side of the pond, the noun Soil invariably refers to earth, the upper tillable layer of the earth. However, the verb, Soil, tends to refer to the act of soiling, or of dirtying. Certainly in farming areas over here, that is the overwhelming use of the word, in its noun or verb forms. Dirt, however, *always* refers to something objectionable. My point is that when people become more disconnected from nature, there seems to be a tendency to only see the dirtying component of soil - like on clothes or shoes. Not the growth component of soil. Dirt generally (over here) doesn’t indicate a growth component. Like the way manure does. So, I’m referring to how a perception of growth has been lost by people who are not closely connected with the land, or nature. I do fear that as our population becomes more urbanised, the connection, and use of language will change, as the understanding of the significance of nature lessens. Some teachers here have told of how some city school children, on a school outing to a local petting farm, were gobsmacked when they were found out where milk came from. They just assumed it was a concoction that came out of a factory. That’s the difference that I’m intending to convey.

[@Patmofar]

@@Mancozeb100 Struggling a bit now aren't you, trying to justify your contradicting yourself? Keep Googling and copy and paste some more waffle, it really is funny. And your expert knowledge as to where I am from is also thousands of kilometers off too. Seasons greetings to you once more.

[@beckybaumann7544]

Nothing is “just a hedgerow” Love your philosophical content.

[@seasickdave]

Lovely hedge in that lane. They are our rainforests. From, supposedly the least forested part of Europe, isn't it odd that most places you drive in Ireland you have trees beside you on both sides of the road. The Irish are a forest people. No forest nowadays here but we are where we are.

[@joekavanagh8997]

The hedgerows of Ireland are a metaphor for the country.They are so common place that they are ignored by the Irsh people.They shouldn't be as this video clearly shows.As someone who left Ireland as a teenager I have come to believe that Irish people don't appreciate how much they have around them.

[@eoinmacantsaoir811]

Interesting to see an outsider eye looking in at Ireland. Definitely from a modern perspective there is something to the transience of modern life vs the permanence of these old stone walls . However as someone pointed out you're maybe missing the historical context of why these were built. People didn't build stone walls by choice. It's hard backbreaking work that's done in part to improve the land. The stones had to be picked from the fields. There's also the context that during the various English conquests and plantations (read colonies) the English confiscated all the good land, forcing the locals to rent it back from landlords. The locals were forced onto more and more marginal land. Almost every scrap of forest in the country was cut down. Every acre of land that could be was converted to farm land. And as someone said inheritance laws were designed so that Catholics couldn't accumulate land, hence lots of small fields.

[@ReaganSchrock]

Thanks for providing that context. Sobering thought for sure…

[@fiddlejohn9305]

I appreciate Reagan’s commentary, but I would also appreciate he make a video of the same walk down the same lane with a biologist, a historian and the farmer who owns and maintains the area.

[@rover100bunson]

Thanks for that thought,i noticed on visiting poland that land is divided up without hedgerows,maybe stones used to mark borders,you can date them to some extent by the gariety of trees growing there,they serve as a source of food and habitation for animals and provide as you say blackberries,hazelnuts and the like,but people dont bother much now to collect these things,cheers

[@MSS-g7f]

It's also important to ask why are the hedgerows like that? And when you do, you learn about enforced sub-division of leased lands where, by law, farms was legislatively engineered to reduce in size. This practice ended during the land wars in Ireland in the latter part of the 19th Century. Look up the origin of the term "boycott" for a nice little nugget.

[@ReaganSchrock]

Thanks for pointing this out. That’s very helpful historical context.

[@cotterfamily6462]

It is also interesting to note that one acre of healthy trees with full canopy produces enough oxygen.for 8-18 people, while one acre of grass produces enough for 70 people. While grass may be relatively poor from a bio diversity point of view when compared to a hedgerow, it nevertheless performs a hugely important role. Both can co exist comfortably of course.

[@fiddlejohn9305]

Does the oxygen release of grass apply to Ireland where Reagan is taking the walk? Grass in Ireland grows through much of the year whereas in Colorado the grass only grows for a few short months unless it is irrigated. And I doubt the areas of bluegrass lawn on my acreage produce as much O2 as the naturalized areas with native plants and trees. Just wondering.

[@MarvinofMars]

80% of the forested land on Ireland is counted as hedge row for wild life. Lots of hedge row too have drinking wells so still are perfectly good, but never drink the water today. The volume of modern toxins is very bad. Animal waste would leave you ill for weeks. Building a new dual carriageway as Civil Engineer marking the new road for diggers, I have also found time capsules in a hedge row. One was a dairy signed by people from the 1850s forward. I signed it and buried it again. Freaked the work crew out too that I buried it secretly again ( within the immediate area of the discovery).

[@michellebyrom6551]

Good on you for passing it along to another generation.

[@RaeKearns]

Thanks a mill. pity that so many hedgerows are being ripped out when new houses are built...

[@larkop6504]

I hope people start to grow more deciduous trees on there land, the soil quality will improve. I know if i return mine will be cultivated into Permaculture.

[@edlowry1]

Interesting views, something we just take for granted here. I guess all countries dont have these :)

[@ReaganSchrock]

Indeed. :) I found them fascinating.

[@finbarrcorcoran9342]

Unfortunately if farmers,local councils and Coillte had their way they'd flatten or harvest everything in sight.

[@MarkCorcoran-fg7dc]

Unfortunately there’s too much cutting of these hedgerows every year. Farmers ignoring the nesting period. The small bird population of Ireland is being decimated.

[@barrypower6822]

are you a farmer

[@bernardtynan1725]

It's rarely farmers and it's most often done by county councils as in kerry where the Healy Rays insist on it being done when it suits them

[@thewildgoose7467]

"It is illegal to cut hedges between 1 March and 31 August". I live in rural Ireland and I've never seen hedgerows being cut during this nesting period.

[@gregleonard1562]

Who did you hear this from?

[@thewildgoose7467]

@@gregleonard1562 Gov.ie "The prohibition is contained in section 40 of the Wildlife Act 1976 . Suspected breaches are investigated by the NPWS and An Garda Síochána. "

[@windupmerchant1679]

Not every wall is made of schtone, some are made of schrock.

[@bealtainecottage]

Surely you mean an earth bank?

[@gregleonard1562]

@@bealtainecottage Banks and hedge grows do the same thing but are created differently, sandbanks on the east coast were big dividers between fields and lanes and some roads, varying in width and height, the biggest could be 8 or 9 feet in height and have a base of 6 or 7 feet, covered in tough grasses, some of the best sandbanks had walkways along the top , some were smaller, as low as 3 feet, all were originally created by wind blown sand, the fields were sandy and sometimes black sand or sand and humus combined to produce the absolute best soil for growing vegetables and herbs.

[@Tipi_Dan]

I didn't see a real "hedgerow". Hedgerows are planted, cultivated, and maintained through a special type of pruning that cuts shrub and small tree (mostly field maple and hazel) trunks about halfway through and then bends them over, intertwining them horizontally. These shrubs are not killed, but begin to send up branches vertically from the interwoven and tangled horizontal trunks that have been "laid". This forms an effective barrier. Stones are unnecessary. What we have seen here is an overgrown stonewall. A sort of "hedge", certainly, but not a traditional "hedgerow".

[@taxusbaccata6332]

Field maple is not native to Ireland, hawthorn the most common species. Thorns to make livestock barrier.

[@HimWitDaHair98]

We don't call them hedgerows. We actually call them ditches. Figure that

[@matthewbarry376]

​@@HimWitDaHair98no a ditch is the depression used for drainage of the road and usually on the other side of the hedgerow there'll be a deeper ditch for field drainage.