Dead Hedge Fencing
Now that we’re in the process of planning out our food forest we are experimenting with different forms of fencing. We need to keep the deer, elk and wild boar our of the food forest to prevent them from eating the trees we will plant. This means we need something tall and sturdy. For this experiment we’re trying out the dead hedge. Instead of making it the full 2.2m needed to keep elk out, we’ve decided to make this prototype more of a wind shelter and south facing facade for one of the struggling apple trees.
We found 6x 1.2m fence stakes that were left behind by the previous owners which was perfect for making 2 sections of fence. We also had a lot of branch cuttings lying around which is a good reason to clean the place up a bit!
First we mowed the spot we wanted to put the fence to make access and digging easier and cleaner. We then measured out where we wanted the posts and made sure they were in alignment with the overall space. We then dug holes and banged the stakes in with the back of the axe.
We then dug up all the grass in the space and a bit around the edges and turned it over so that it would die off. This is to make maintenance easier so that the grass doesn’t grow messily up into the fence. This keeps the space clear for any future climbing plants we want to grow along the fence.
We then covered the dirt with a thick layer of wood chips to really make sure nothing sprouts up underneath.
We then filled the space between the posts with the dead branches making sure to weave them into each other and stomp them down. We cut some fresh small birch branches just to test what that was like, but mostly we’ll be filling the fence with the winter prunings.
Summary
The dead hedge fence is an easy and resourceful way to make effective fencing cheap. It was a bit labourious with the digging prep, but functionally that wasn’t really necessary if your short on time. In the future we will use debarked hazel stakes with charred bottoms and the odd willow stake where we want them to take root and provide fire wood.