English hedgerow

A hedgerow is defined as closely spaced shrubs and tree species, planted and trained in such a way as to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area. The root word 'hedge' is much older: it appears in the Old English language, in German (Hecke), and Dutch (haag) to mean 'enclosure', as in the name of the Dutch city The Hague, or more formally 's Gravenhage, meaning The Count's hedge.

We have a hedgerow growing along the side of our house extending all along the one side of our back yard. We inherited this hedge when we moved into our house 14 years ago. It stands 6 feet tall and about 3 feet wide. It makes the perfect privacy fence and a great buffer, reducing traffic noise from the street. Only problem is, it needs to be trimmed several times throughout the summer.

I like to trim the hedgerow by hand using only my hand trimmers (not electric), and a ladder. It takes the good part of a day, but I find that if I get started early in the morning it's really not that bad and it becomes very therapeutic for me.

The straight line across the top is fairly easy to achieve just by standing back every now and then and eyeballing it.

Our patio is enclosed and very private with the tall hedge on one side and holly bushes and a picket fence on the other side.

When Otis and Riley were puppies I put up a green wire fence all along the hedgerow to keep them from getting out, and now the hedge covers the wire and makes it unnoticeable.




Even though hedges are a lot of maintenance, there is an aesthetic beauty to them.

~Perfect for a cottage garden.