I was sent some pictures a week or so back by K.R who was not altogether happy with the way that the hedge had been cut at the corner of Twelve Acre Drive and the Road to Radley Village.
“It looks like somebody has bulldozed it with a very blunt instrument and the result is it has split and shredded the branches and main trunks of the hedge…. This method of hedge cutting is the worst because it leaves the hedge very vulnerable to disease and weakens the hedge too. It’s a messy job – there are bits of broken wood scattered all over the road around the roundabout and path, and all the grasses, thistles and wildflowers (some of which were very pretty and visited by bees) all around have also been indiscriminately mown close to the ground….”
I saw the farmer doing this work – he had a large cutting implement on the end of his tractor. Although the results are not the prettiest, I guess it’s the most time & cost efficient way of doing the job – by hand would take an eternity
I wonder if K R would mind the farmer posting up pictures of his/her lawn complaining about the method its cut and having a moan about the environmental qualities that are lost due to their intense maintenance programme. If the farmer needs to cut his hedge then leave him to do it. This a standard way of doing it the world over. I guess the other low cost way of securing a boundary would be to rip out the hedge, erect a fence and weed kill along it a couple of times a year….
Farmers do a lot of work keeping footpaths clear, hedges trim etc. This way of trimming hedges is now like it or not standard.
…this kind of farming seems to lead to the kind of species decline an environmental degradation we now see all over England.
It may look brutal, but it allows sunlight to get to the base, allowing new growth to come from the base and use the old wood as support.