Hedgerows for Wildlife: Planting Mixed Native Hedges as Corridors

Hedgerows: Vital Wildlife Corridors

Traditional mixed hedgerows bordering fields and lanes are crucial links supporting wildlife. The best connect to other hedges or woodlands, forming 'wildlife corridors' for safe animal movement. Garden hedges in isolation still provide valuable resources.

Many garden hedges are single-species (beech, hornbeam, holly, privet, yew)—neat and formal but wildlife-poor. Frequent cutting removes flowers and fruit. Less formal hedges of Rosa rugosa or Berberis flower and fruit with occasional trimming, feeding bees, birds, and providing prickly nesting sites.

Hints and Tips

Walk local country lanes to note hedgerow plants. Plant new hedges when dormant (late autumn to early spring) for root establishment.

Mixed Native Hedgerows

Where gardens abut fields or woods, plant a traditional mixed hedge. Less tidy but far more interesting with varied leaf colors, textures, and seasonal flowers and fruit. Once established, add scramblers like dog roses, honeysuckle, brambles, and old man's beard. Plant low-growing wildflowers—primroses, violets, red campion—at the base for early spring interest. A yearly trim suffices; remove coarse plants from the base to maintain order.

Selection of Species

Farm hedgerows often started as hawthorn and gradually mixed. Today we plant mixed from the start, still letting hawthorn predominate. Choose mixtures suited to your soil: chalky soils favor hawthorn, dogwood, field maple, spindle, hazel, wayfaring tree; damp soils suit willow, guelder rose, dogwood.