Plants

If your hedge comprises of plants with berries, it is better to leave until late winter so that the birds have the benefit of the berries during the winter.

When undertaking work on any hedge, check that there are no birds nesting as it is an offence under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 to damage or destroy the nest of any wild bird while the nest is in use or being built - the breeding bird season is seen to be from 1 March to the 31 August inclusive.  So any work on hedges is best carried out after the end of August and before March, but don't forget to take into account the presence of berries, as these are an important source of food for many different animals.

Picture by Elizabeth Dack

You don't need a huge garden to attract wildife, any open area can be managed for the benefit of wildlife. If you have a patio area why not plant some low growing plants in the cracks and gaps. By doing this you will be providing a valuable habitat and food for a variety of small animals. Bellflower, cranesbill, herb robert, purple saxifrage and thrift are just a few plants that will happily grow in such an environment.

Picture by Elizabeth Dack

Mistletoe can be successfully grown from berries but this is by no means easy and it may take many attempts before you succeed.

To increase your chances of success it is best to collect the mistletoe berries in February or early March not at Christmas! You may need to cover a few berries on an existing plant with a net or you run the risk that birds will have eaten them leaving none for you to collect! The seeds will stick to the bark of the trees when the berry is smeared onto a branch. In the wild this is done by mistle thrushes and other birds which are fond of eating the white mistletoe berries but discard the sticky seed by wiping their bills on a convenient branch in the process spreading mistletoe from tree to tree. Mistletoe will only grow on certain tree species and apple trees seem especially receptive. Hawthorn, lime, poplar, whitebeam, pear, field maple and ash are also suitable trees to try.

Chose a young branch with thin, smooth bark and wipe the seed in a shady position such as the north facing side or underside of your chosen branch. There is no need to cut the bark with a knife. You will need patience. It can often take a couple of years before the first pair of mistletoe leaves appear. Prior to that you may if you look carefully spot the fragile green root which is the first sign that your berry has germinated successfully. Remember while mistletoe does not kill trees it is partially parasitic so you may not want to plant it on your best fruit tree! Once it's established it is fine to harvest some each year and both the mistletoe and the host tree should survive for decades.

Picture by Elizabeth Dack
 

Ivy is a native, evergreen climber which has enormous benefits for wildlife especially during the cold winter months when it provides natural shelter for a wide array of mammals, birds and invertebrates.
 
Ivy is also an important food plant for many species. Its autumn flowers followed by ripened berries in late winter/early spring provide an important food source for many insects and birds at a time of year when other natural food supplies have been consumed.  

Picture by Elizabeth Dack
 

Mechanical fails or rotary driven cutters are widely used by farmers and landowners and the majority of hedges will recover from this. When cut by this method the hedge will look severely beaten for a few weeks. When the new shoots do grow back they will form multiple shoots and then branch outwards rather than up.

Landowners using a reciprocating bar cutter to cut the hedges will often leave a neater cut on the hedge with less risk of infection to individual plants within the hedge.

By law landowners are required to trim hedges back if they are alongside public highways, footpaths or any public right of way if it is preventing ease of access or affecting safety of the highway user to drivers or pedestrians. The debris from cutting must also be cleared up afterwards.

Under Cross Compliance regulations, which most agricultural land is now under, the cutting of hedges is prohibited between 1st March and 31st July to prevent nesting birds and other wildlife being disturbed.

The cutting of standard trees within a hedgerow is up to the landowner. If they are in one of the agricultural schemes such as the Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) or Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) then there are rules and guidelines on hedgerow management. Ideal hedgerow management is not always easy to achieve. The ‘text book’ way to cut a hedge is to cut in an ‘A’ shape with a wide bottom and flat top to give good ground cover for nesting birds also to cut during the winter months to lessen disturbance to wildlife but this is not always possible for landowners.

The health of the mature trees is put at risk by infection when cut by flail mowers but the majority of them will survive. The longer outlook for them will be that they grow outwards and get incorporated into the hedge rather than grow up to be mature tress if the cutting continues. Without some form of management hedges will become gappy at the base and less attractive to certain wildlife species. Without the flail cutter it would be true that many more hedgerows would have been lost in the UK, as landowners would have grubbed far more out, prior to legislation which now restricts their complete removal.

Picture by Richard Brunton

If your plant is mature (more than five years old) then it is likely that it is a male plant. Mistletoe is dioecious meaning it has separate male and female plants with only the female plant bearing berries. If your plant is less than five years old then it may just be that your plant is too immature to produce berries and it is then a case of being patient and hoping it turns out to be a female plant!

Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, no one can remove any hedgerow at a time when any bird nesting is disturbed - 1 March to 31 August. At all other times, a hedge between domestic properties or in a private garden is not protected by any law preventing its removal. However, the Hedgerows Regulations 1997 states that no countryside hedge can be removed without permission if it is more than 20m in length.
For further information visit:  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/countryside-hedgerows-regulation-and-management

Picture by Tim Stringer

Bee orchids can be really unpredictable and may disappear from an area where they have been flowering successfully. They are usually found where there is drained base rich soil in areas such as scrubland, coastal sand dunes, chalk grassland and occasionally unmown lawns.

It is best to leave an area of bare ground for the seeds to settle on as this is a colonising plant, however only those seeds which gain nutrients from fungal hyphae will begin to develop. Cutting should be avoided.

To be wildlife friendly it needs to provide a combination of shelter from the elements and predators, a supply of food and good breeding sites. A good hedge will be composed of a mixture of native species to encourage a variety of wildlife. Consider using 50% hawthorn in with a selection of three or four other species to add diversity. Other good species to use are blackthorn, field maple, dog wood, common alder, hazel, crab apple and holly. Once the hedge is established you can introduce climbers such as dog rose, honeysuckle and ivy all of which will increase the value to wildlife of your hedge

Plant your hedge by creating two staggered lines with plants spaced 30 to 45 cm (12”-18”) apart with the second row about 45cm (18”) from the first.

New hedges are best planted during autumn and winter (October – February). Avoid periods when the ground is frozen or water-logged. Dig over the area for planting, one spade blade deep and remove any grass or weeds. Bare rooted trees and shrubs (whips) will be cheaper than pot grown and are better for establishing a hedge. Most hedgerow trees or shrubs do not require any compost unless your soil is sandy or heavy clay.

You will need to weed around the base of your new plants for the first couple of years and water in dry periods during the growing season.The hedge can be lightly trimmed in the autumn every other year but remember to leave some of the hedge uncut to provide plenty of berries for winter and avoid cutting your hedge during the nesting season of birds (March to late July).

To provide more homes for wildlife; leave the grass long leading up to the hedge and leave leaf piles and log piles at its base to provide a variety of habitats for invertebrates and small mammals. Flowers such as snowdrops, primroses, red campions, dog roses, honeysuckles, foxgloves and violets can be planted at the base of your hedge – these will encourage insects to visit. Foxgloves are especially attractive to bees and honeysuckle will attract moths at night.

The main reason why flowers such as these are now rare is that they are essentially flowers of cultivated or disturbed land. The drive for higher yields and ever more sophisticated farming methods, especially more efficient herbicides, has virtually eliminated these flowers from the UK; in fact the cornflower is now extinct in the wild in Norfolk. The seeds can however be readily purchased from garden centres and wildflower seed stockists, and when sown in the garden provide a beautiful display which is highly beneficial to insects. For more information download our leaflet ‘Creating your own Poppyland'.

Himalayan balsam is not native to the UK and was introduced from the western Himalayas in 1839 as a garden ornamental. It has since escaped and spread across the country. Himalayan balsam is an annual plant, growing from seed set the previous year. This seed germinates early in the spring and grows rapidly to form dense stands up to 3 m in height which shade out native vegetation. It is the tallest annual plant in Britain. It has hollow, jointed pinkish-red stems which are sappy and brittle. The leaves are shiny, dark green and spear-shaped with a dark red midrib and up to 150 mm long. The flowers which appear between June and October are fragrant, purplish-pink, slipper shaped and held on long stalks. The numerous seeds are widely scattered by an explosive seed capsule, and can travel along water ways into new areas. When the plant dies back in the autumn it leaves bare patches which cause particular problems along riverbanks which become prone to erosion.

The plant is now quite widespread in central and eastern Norfolk and is still expanding its range. It can be seen along the banks of rivers, in wet woodland and on waste ground.

Giant hogweed is an impressive plant and can reach heights of up to 5-6 metres. It is therefore much taller and has altogether larger dimensions than any related native plant. The plant is not native to the UK, and was introduced from south-west Asia in 1893 as an ornamental plant. The hollow stems are green with reddish-purple blotches, and up to 100 mm across. The leaves are dark green and jagged, ending in a spike, and arranged in rosettes around the stem. The many small white flowers appear in June or July and form an umbrella-shaped head (umbel) up to 500 mm across. It can take up to four years for a Giant hogweed to flower, but each plant can produce 50 – 80,000 seeds

Giant hogweed grows well where the soil has been disturbed, such as wasteground, roadsides and riverbanks. Here they will shade out native vegetation. The seeds are easily dispersed by water, so it is often seen spreading along watercourses. It is widespread in Norfolk with ‘hot-spots’ to the south and east of Norwich. After flowering, the whole plant dies off. This can cause problems with soil erosion if large areas of riverbanks are left bare over the winter.

NOTE: Giant hogweed is a toxic plant and a public health hazard. The stems, edges and undersides of the leaves have small hairs which contain poisonous sap. The slightest touch causes the skin to become photo-sensitive, so that exposure to sunlight causes severe burns and blistering. For this reason, protective clothing must be worn when dealing with this species.

Japanese knotweed is not native to the UK, and was introduced around 1855 as a garden ornamental. It is an invasive and destructive herbaceous perennial, native to Japan and south-east Asia. Shoots emerge in spring and grow rapidly up to 3 m tall forming dense clumps that shade out native vegetation. It has fleshy green and red hollow stems with swollen red nodes, giving an appearance similar to bamboo. The leaves are green, triangular to heart-shaped, 70 – 150 mm long. Flowers appear from July to September and are creamy white, 3 mm wide, borne in dense clusters on the tips of stems. The underground rhizomes can be up to 10 cm in diameter, spreading 7 m from the parent plant and up to a depth of 2 m or more underground. Only female plants are present in the UK and they rarely set seed. Any seeds produced are likely to be from a cross with the closely related giant knotweed. The stems die back in winter, taking several years to decompose fully.

The plant favours areas such as roadsides, railway embankments, riverbanks and wasteland, and can be found throughout Norfolk.

The garden can have a different dimension at night time. Many plants flower exclusively at night, and many more wait until evening to release their wonderful scents. These can play an important role in the wildlife garden, attracting nocturnal pollinators such as moths that are attracted to the strong scents.

Some favourite garden plants with night time scent are:

Honeysuckle – Lonicera periclymenum

Jasmine - Jasminum officinale (not strictly night scented, but the perfume can be strong on warm evenings)

Night scented stock - Mattholia longipetala

Evening primrose - Oenothera biennis

Flowering tobacco – Nicotiana alata – note that many modern Nicotiana varieties are day-flowering and have lost their scent.

Buddleia – various varieties, all attract butterflies during the day, but can also attract moths in the evening.

Ivy is not parasitic. It has its own root system, deriving its own nutrients directly from the soil. The tiny, root-like structures on its stems merely enable it to cling to the tree without damage to the bark. In rare instances, ivy may cause the toppling of a dead or rotten tree if excessive weight of leaves and stems near the tree’s crown make it top-heavy and cause it to blow over in high winds.

Ivy tends to grow well on trees that are already in decline. A tree in full vigorous growth will not usually allow sufficient light through the canopy for ivy to thrive. Oaks in particular naturally shed branches and limbs as they age. This is an entirely natural process. The dead wood so produced is in turn extremely valuable for wildlife: it becomes a food source for insects, which form a valuable food source for birds such as woodpeckers, while rot holes in dead wood are used by a wide range of species as roosts and nest sites.

Picture by Elizabeth Dack