Creating British style hedgerows with American native plants.

Hello crew. I've been fully inspired by the hedgerows from the British countryside and how they benefited wildlife over there. I'm trying to duplicate that in my gardens here in America to help not only wildlife, but also humans with edible berries and nuts. I'm looking for more native American shrubs and trees that would absolutely help me match the ones from England and Scotland. Are there ones out there that would shelter larger animals such as deer, foxes, raccoons, opossum, coyote, badger, and others? If there are any plants native to the Midwest, please let me know. Drop by if you all got anymore to add. Good night.

Mulberries, chinquipin, dogwoods, crab apples, staghorn sumac, willow, roses ... probably any native tree that can be air layered.  I think Osage orange hedges used to be used as cattle fencing before barbed wire. I considered it when I first got a full yard to work with.  The main consideration seems to be if they can survive the brutal process of being laid. If they can survive the first few years most native plants are very resilient. I know it is nearly impossible to kill Hackberry by cutting.   That's actually why it's not on my list.  Once you have it you'll have it for 200+ years plus all it's seedlings.

I'm wondering if any of the dogwoods and sumacs could be used as hedges for many animals, large and small. For winter shelter and protection, could we use red cedar for those of us living in the Midwest and east coast to help birds and other creatures in winter?

Our native yews might be good for this purpose : https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/taxus-canadensis/

I think this is the short dark yew you see all over planted in front of porches and foundations. It has fruit for birds, too. The link above says the branches will root if bent down to ground.

M.K! What's happening? I'm looking for stuff that get food and shelter for wildlife in a couple of years to get astonishing results. I wanna help migratory and non migratory birds and other creatures have a future in my community and region. Example, I have an elderberry in my community plot and I'm looking for similar ones that would grow faster in months or in a few years. Any ones come to mind?

Red cedar is good, but it needs distance from any apple, Hawthorn or serviceberry, or diseases will pass between them that will kill the latter three species. Also white cedar is usable in a similar way.

Other plants that come to mind- new jersey tea, native Hollies, northern Pigeon grapes, Wild rose, trumpet honeysuckle, native viburnums, etc.

I'm definitely going to follow this thread, because it's a dream of mine too! (though it will be years before I can do anything with it). It would be interesting to hear how you plant things to create the hedge - I know there's shaping involved, but not sure how to do it!

Wow! Somebody's been inspired by this column.  Welcome young lady and thanks for your interest.

American plum might be another good option.  Great for wildlife and people and spreads through the roots so you could probably train it into a hedge.

Capital idea! I wanna find out if provide nesting and shelter for birds and other creatures. Is the fruit sill edible?

Now I want American plums.. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.twisted-tree.net/growing-american-plums&ved=2ahUKEwi8_YXn3fP4AhV8omoFHYL2BU4QFnoECA0QBQ&usg=AOvVaw24NaO2I_wDKT-_ZQs_3n3k according to this guy the flesh tastes better than most domestic plums. He says the skin is thick and tart which isn't as good for fresh eating but from experience with wild grapes I would expect it makes superior jam because of it.

They grow from Canada down to New Mexico.  They grow easily from seed and he has had seedlings reach 8 feet in one year. It takes 3 years to reach fruiting size. They also naturally form thickets from root suckered, less ideal for me.  They do frequently lose all the crop to frost damage as they are very early bloomers.  Good for bees but if you wanted a harvest you might need to protect from late frosts.

How we do that? I never had a technique on protecting edible wild plants.

As you are speaking about hedgerows I was picturing at least part of it being close enough to cover.  But a central Texas idea of a late frost is maybe a few hours Below freezing in March or April. A few blankets is often all that's needed for exposed plants.  I notice that even a winter bare tree makes a difference so you might plant them between taller plants or south of evergreens.  

If you can't be there then you will be looking for protective microclimate.  Weird but true facts, there's a valley in Austin that has established plant species that have survived since the time of dinosaurs. You have to travel into the tropics to find some of them because during the ice ages they were all destroyed except this small that had just the perfect set of conditions to keep everything warmer.
https://mayfieldpark.org/mayfield-park-and-preserve-overview/  I believe it's the native palm trees that are most obvious.  For all that I have heard rumors of a native palm here, this is the only place I have ever seen it in the wild and I grew up playing in the wild fields and every hiking area my mom could take us to.

Lost Maples is the other way around.   It gives a beautiful fall display reminiscent of the New England area because it has a microclimate just cool enough that maples thrive far south of normal.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/lost-maples

The further south you live the less I'd be concerned.  If their native range is into Canada then even in areas with notorious winters they still sometimes carry a crop to maturity. They wouldn't sustain a population otherwise.

viburnums are another possibility for this kind of thing. nannyberry and arrowwood both have edible fruit (probably more interesting for wildlife than people, in general) and are loosely native to your area. maybe highbush cranberry too. i suspect that there are others, too.

I have always admired those also. How does one build them? Are they just rows of plantings or stuff planed on top of a mound of dirt and stone??

Mari Henry wrote:I have always admired those also. How does one build them? Are they just rows of plantings or stuff planed on top of a mound of dirt and stone??

Row of plantings with side branches twisted down/ interwoven. YouTube has videos of course but I’m a Monty Don addict which is where I’ve seen it.

They are pretty awesome, Im hoping to lay one in the next few years with hazel. They are gorgeous

I was wondering if I could make a hedge of climbing wild rose which is considered a replacement for the invasive multiflora rose which is extremely non native and absolutely shall destroy all native wildlife habitat in the near long term. I've grew that in my backyard hoping to draw more nesting and non nesting birds in the near future, but it hasn't happened yet. Anybody made a hedgerow from all straight native wild roses that will feed wildlife and humans with their fruity hips?

Don't plant Hackberrys.  They're not long-lived and not worth the hassle.  By the time, they get big enough to provide a bit of shade, they're nearly dead and have the nasty habit of falling over and taking out other trees with them because the roots seem to die before the rest of the tree.

At least here in Texas, Hackberrys getting 30' tall or so.   I think what you want is probably lower growing.  Talk to your county agricultural office and see what's native in your area.   You might even be able to create enough of an area to get some sort of wildlife exemption if done properly.  

Lots of native shrubs/short trees like Hollys, Witch Hazel, Madrone, Hawthorne, Viburnums,  Willows, Buddelia, Choke Cherry, Ninebark, etc.  It just depends on what's native in your area.  This is where the County Agri office can help you out.  They can also help you, in a lot of cases, to source the plants as well since they'll either be familiar with local growers or be able to point you to something like the master gardener program where there will be people who do know the local growers.  

If you need big shade trees quickly, look at cottonwoods, ashes, or locusts.  If you're OK with thorns, I really recommend the locust trees.  They're minimally trashy, The seed pods are a favorite of wildlife.  The shade isn't dense enough to shade out other plants.  

For fruit trees, a lot will depend on how well you can meet the chilling requirements of most of the trees.  Apples, pears, plums, peaches, cherries, all grow here depending on the variety and location.

Nut trees  - chestnut , hickory, pecan, fiberts(hazelnuts), black walnuts but for wild life that includes most oaks, sweetgums, pine and whole host of other trees that produce nuts.  

Fruit vines are probably a safer bet - blackberry,  various wild grapes.  mayhaws, but even pricky pear cactus pears are edible (and delicious) if you have the fortitude to harvest them and burn the spines off.  

Thanks for the hackberry advice. Which types of trees and shrubs that provide more shade and cover and not as dramatic as the hackberries? Thanks for the wake up call!

A lot of the replies here seem to be describing a "shelter belt" rather than a traditional english hedgerow, as per the original poster's request.

Historically hedgerows we carefully maintained stock-proof barriers. Plants were local varieties, typically selected for thorniness, and tendency to coppice well. A lot of the plants described above would not work in a traditional hedge, because they would be too soft and palatable to livestock. Yew would definitely not be found, as it is lethal to animals if consumed in even small quantities.

In winter, on a 5 to 7 year rotation cycle, the farmers would come around and "lay" the hedge. A billhook would cut the stems 2/3rds through, right near the base, and the stems would be bent and twisted near horizontal to form the barrier. It is this laying process that makes it stock proof - especially by bending them as low as possible to the ground, where gaps would naturally form otherwise. This process is obviously labour intensive.

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More recently; farmers have basically stopped laying hedges. Instead they rely on wire fences, and use tractor mounted flails to thrash them into shape. Hedges maintained this way are not stock proof, but do provide reasonably good wildlife habitat, and windbreaks.

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For the OP: Is your primary purpose to form a tight stock proof barrier, or is it for a shelter belt? Being clear on this purpose will inform your decision making.

Awful way to use barb wire fences to tangle and hurt wildlife long term while trying to save and protect livestock in the short term! I don't have any  livestock myself, but got some goats and chickens at my community farm. I'm creating hedge forests or shrublands to help local wildlife and migrating birds for greater ecological health and better rewards. What can we do to convince farmers and ranchers that hedges are the way to go ecologically and agriculturally to help humanity and wildlife?

There is a Hackberry right on the fence line between my backyard and the neighbors.  The trunk is too thick for me to put my arms around and it is at least 30 feet tall.  Some of these trees live for 100s of years.  I strongly don't recommend them because it reseed everywhere and if you don't catch them very early (say less than 12 inches tall) they are very hard to kill.  Of course I am in Central Texas.  Maybe your winters are hard on them.

Actually I was just looking online to see if you were possibly at the very edge of it's naive range which could explain why it struggles in North Texas (you are, on the southern edge of the common Hackberry) and found out its not in my area. We have in our area is the very close relative known as the sugarberry or Southern Hackberry so there could be lots of reasons why our experiences have been so different.  

Blake Lenoir wrote: Thanks for the hackberry advice. Which types of trees and shrubs provide more shade and cover and are not as dramatic as the hackberries? Thanks for the wake up call!

There have been far too many books written on native plants so I won't regurgitate them but I will point out that lots of things we treat as "shrubs" are really meant to be small trees.  That's why they grow oddly, get so many diseases, and then die well before they should.  Viburnums in particular spring to mind since they grow slowly but they'll get quite large if given time.  Crab apples and lots of dogwoods get into that same shorter tree range.  Willows also run the gamut from medium-sized shrubs to large trees.  

Hollys are shorter trees/large shrubs as are the crab apples and dogwoods.  Yaupon in particular will get into the 20' range if left to do its own thing.  There are a lot of species around.  They're really important to birds in particular and there's a lot to pick from.  There are about 200 different ones that are native to North America.  Most get pruned into fiddly hedges until they finally die but they're almost all small trees if they're not butchered.  

Here's one that did not get butchered - https://txmg-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/cameron/files/Youpon-tree2.jpg

The trick is finding one with the growth habit you want and that likes your conditions.  

Fully grown witch hazel - https://i.etsystatic.com/21190527/r/il/7ceaeb/2222131034/il_1588xN.2222131034_8lux.jpg

Fully grown Indian Hawthorne https://www.gardendesign.com/pictures/images/280x250Exact_38x0/site_3/washington-hawthorn-crataegus-phaenopyrum-hawthorn-tree-millette-photomedia_15713.jpg

You got a wildlife or any other garden down in Texas? I've got gardens for wildlife, Native Americans and early settlers in my gardens in Chicago where I can educate everybody and inspire all. How's your garden this year?

I wanna find out if I can grow shrubs from seed to create a hedgerow, has anybody done so from seed?

How big is the area you plan on doing the hedge row and what is the condition now? Do you have plants on your list already besides elderberry? If some of them are easily propagated from cuttings if you start rooting now next spring they are ready to plant in ground. Pokeweed and Osage orange grow readily from seeds so they can be sown in place.
I am following this thread with keen interest too.

Michael Cox wrote:A lot of the replies here seem to be describing a "shelter belt" rather than a traditional english hedgerow, as per the original poster's request.

That was my impression, as well.

If I were looking to produce a livestock barrier in the midwest- things like black locust and osage orange are thorny, sucker, and coppice well.  Many of our native hawthorns have similar characteristics.  These species still provide important pollinator habitat, nesting sites for birds, etc.

Old fencerows are important wildlife corridors, and if I wanted to create one without worrying about keeping livestock in...maybe act as a visual barrier, I'd look to wild plum, gray and roughleaf dogwood, native hawthorns, elderberry, hazelnut, beech, hornbeam, serviceberry, rubus (blackberry/raspberry/dewberry).  You might even be able to string an electric wire around the paddock, and train cows to avoid the planting.  

May! Glad you on board. I'm gonna create a living gate that's ultimately inviting to all creatures large and small, and wanna use the strip of hedge as my new border in the future to help shelter and feed wildlife such as songbirds, field mice, rabbits, toads, voles, coons, possums, garter snakes, butterflies and others to my urban plots without drawing non native creatures such as rats and house mice which are noxious. I also don't want my hedges overtake my domestic crops such corn and stuff. I wanna grow elderberry, hazelnut, sumac, pokeweed, wild rose, blackberry, Virginia creeper, wild grape, green brier, and few others that will do long term mircles for all living things on the surface or underground to enrich the soil. How do hedges aid the soil and its inhabitants such as worms, moles and others in terms of food sources and habitat structure? I'm trying to create a new web of biodiversity in my backyards and urban plots in future years, not just in this present time, but in the long haul.

Blake Lenoir wrote: How do hedges aid the soil and its inhabitants such as worms, moles and others in terms of food sources and habitat structure? I'm trying to create a new web of biodiversity in my backyards and urban plots in future years, not just in this present time, but in the long haul.

From recent reading, two key things that aid soil building and restoration are: 1) minimal or no tillage and 2) planting a polyculture.

Earthworms poop out many microbes, but dousing new areas with compost tea can help, as can finding a native, healthy soil and using some of it to make a compost tea with. The native soil will have more of the mycorrhiza that will help a hedgerow than the compost tea will from what I've been told. Above all that, observe the plants - they have ways to tell you how happy they are or aren't with our attempts to help them! Sometimes, patience is key - plant easy stuff that's known to help the soil recover, and then a few years later, plant the fussier plants.  

Could sumac or pussy willow work? And is pussy willow native to the Midwest? How do young plants respond to healthy soil after being establised?

Blake Lenoir wrote: I wanna find out if I can grow shrubs from seed to create a hedgerow, has anybody done so from seed?

Yes definitely.  That's the best way to get strong young whips about a foot tall with a good root system that you can transplant bareroot in winter.

Blake wrote: I wanna grow elderberry, hazelnut, sumac, pokeweed, wild rose, blackberry, Virginia creeper, wild grape, green brier,

Elder is not great as a structural plant in hedges as it doesn't lay well (see Michael Cox's earlier post describing laying).  Elder is too brittle, open and leggy, but it does shoot strongly and flower and fruit on first-year wood, so a bit in a hedge is OK.  You just have to be quite harsh with it.  Hazel will give you a stronger framework and is pleasant to work with as it has no thorns.  But Hawthorn is the best as it branches well and the thorns deter livestock whilst helping the whole hedge to knit together.  I'm not that familiar with sumac, we do have it here as a garden plant but I feel it is quite brittle like elder.  The other things you mention are mostly climbers?  So you've got to give them something to climb on.  Hawthorn, blackthorn, holly, hazel, field maple are a good mix you can't go far wrong with to actually make a hedge, even though they are not the most productive edibles.
For clarity: Crataegus monogyna or laevigata, Prunus spinosa, Ilex europaeus, Corylus avellana, Acer campestre.  There are presumably North American relatives of similar habit!
Willow probably not stiff enough.  I have never seen willow in any quantity in a good hedge.  We increasingly see wolfberries in hedges but I'm not impressed with their growing habit, again lots of thin whippy straight shoots.

I had to prune down my elderberry bush cause it hasn't produced the way it should. What should I do to help my elderberries grow back to a healthier state so they can produce at a higher level?

Blake Lenoir wrote: I had to prune down my elderberry bush cause it hasn't produced the way it should. What should I do to help my elderberries grow back to a healthier state so they can produce at a higher level?

What has it done since you pruned it down?  They are very much like a lot of soft fruit bushes, they fruit best on young wood.  In my experience if pruned right back to ground level every few years they will fruit beautifully for a couple of years and then the heads get smaller.  A top dressing of manure wouldn't hurt either.

The other thing elders are very good for is that they are the preferred host for jelly ear fungus - yum!

I haven't seen any young shoots yet since I pruned it down. What conditions I need to guarentee any future growth to build a sustainable population?

When you grow your gardens for educational purpose for the general permies, is aesthetic part of your consideration? Non permaculture person might not find a random mixture of many native plants very appealing.

Blake Lenoir wrote: I haven't seen any young shoots yet since I pruned it down. What conditions I need to guarentee any future growth to build a sustainable population?

It depends when you did it.  I would cut elder right down to ground level in the winter - the harder you prune the more strongly it will come back.  When farmers are laying a hedge they will tend to pull elder right out as there will always be seedlings coming along to replace it sooner or later.  If I had several elder bushes I would coppice them down to ground level in winter, in rotation doing one every year, and give it some manure.    

I've pruned mine earlier ago, this summer since half of my plant dried up and died. What should I do if half of my plant died this summer?

Hello folks! I wanna find out if pipes are safe paths for smaller creatures such as toads, field mice and others. I'm considering creating a rock pile for creatures near my hedge to help secure a safe place for all creatures that needed one. Please share me some ideas to make my hedge and rock pile habitats more secure for all wildlife species large and small for a stronger future. Adios!