Kay Easton wrote in
:

In article , Martin Sykes
writes

how is the height llimit enforced
with respect to the natural growth of hedges through the year? I'm
thinking of something I heard that trimming native hedges every year
is damaging to the wildlife and it's better to do it every three years
instead.

Many of the rose family (which includes hawthorns, blackthorn) fruit
opn second year wood, so you have less fruit if you trim every year.

Something to do with
production of fruits etc. being better that way. If I do that though
the hedge will necessarily fluctuate in height between about 6ft and
8-9ft or more.

No - not necessarily - it could fluctuate between 3 and 6 ft ;-)

only 3 ft in 3 years? You haven't met my hazel hedge!

I imagine trimming a hedge to exactly 6ft every couple of months for
legal reasons would be bad for the hedge for wildlife reasons?

Not particularly. Cutting in spring would disturb birds' nests. But
otherwise regular trimming would encourage the hedge to become bushier
- arguably a good thing for wildlife. And not everything lives on
berries! - if you want to encourage wildlife, avoid pesticides and
encourage insects - that way you get a diversity of insects and
attract the insect eating birds.

I am letting some of my (mostly) hazel hedge shoot away for several
years because it provides a multitude of useful beanpoles and stakes.
I understand that this was in the past common practice.
Nearer the house I keep it trimmed down to 3ft (plus bank).

I have to trim it several times a year to keep it looking like a hedge
rather than a bunch of trees in a line. It will easily grow many feet
in a year, but I don't think the taller version is much more wildlife
friendly than the small version, unless you have no other trees - the
goldcrests hang about inside the thicker bottom bit, anyway (and inside
my berberis).

I also have a couple of beech hedges - those need *much* less trimming
and can be cut with a hedge trimmer even if left for a year or so
(though when I arrived I reckon they'd been left about 12 years - now
that *did* need a saw...)

Soil will make a difference - on my Cheshire clay, the elder tree in my
old hedge would make feet in a year and flowered reliably: on top of a
dry cornish bank, elder is now a delicate little thing that needs
encouraging along!

Oh, if you haven't bought your hedging yet, Martin, I'd suggest you
think twice about including wild roses. They make hedgelaying a very
scratchy experience with their long whippy stems. Grow 'em up something
you don't need to regular contact with instead, I would.

Victoria