Has anyone made a ‘ dead hedge’ ?

[Nicos]

Every year I shred quite a lot of branches both from my woodyard and garden to use as mulching.
I’ve recently been looking into making a few dead hedges across the more open land of our back field. Mostly to help birds have a resting place, and mammals to seek cover from birds of prey and weather and of course for insects.
I doubt they’ll last more than a few years( mostly hazel) but I could then shred them at that point instead, having created shelter for a few years at least ( and then of course replace them)…or maybe even build a few more!

Has anyone made one?
It looks pretty straight forward.
Any tips please?

https://www.rspb.org.uk/helping-natu...e-for-wildlife
https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwe...n/pledge/hedge
https://www.bearstedwoodlandtrust.org/dry_hedges

[Bren In Pots]

It looks an interesting project Nicos and it’s bound to attract birds, bugs and other little creatures.
We have brick walls around our garden so no chance of a dead hedge.

[Nicos]

I guess it depends on the size of a garden. It would make an interesting screen hiding a compost or water storage container.
Doesn't need to be big!

[smallblueplanet]

I've seen social media posts about these, they look great. On Bluesky - #deadhedge Maybe you could screen some of your wall with one Bren?

We've got a short length of lowish hedge at the end of the garden, some of that is dead! Did some infilling this month with hawthorn whips. I saw on GW Friday's episode where someone had been reusing old farm bits and bobs and metal gates - maybe I'll fish ours out of our hedge and repurpose them! They were to infill holes to try and stop Munjac squeezing through!

[greenishfing]

I once attempted this but somehow a blackberry pruning must have rooted itself and I ended up with a massive blackberry bush.

[Peanut]

I haven't made a proper dead hedge, as in a pretty one, but I did my own version!
I used lots of twiggy shrub branches from an assortment of plants and in one part of the garden I kind of just stuffed them along the bottom of an existing hedge that was quite bare at the bottom and a muntjac had found a way through, here I used mainly pyracantha to prickle its nose, worked a treat! Elsewhere I kind of stood them in an upright position, they were pretty large, long branches and created a kind of dead hedge effect where there was a gap in the existing hedge. Its held up well and this year I plan on removing it gradually as I infill with a new assortment of hedging saplings.

I really like the proper neat and secured dead hedges and would definitely give it a go!

[Hoppy The Hedgie]

Dead hedges, nice deep ones, are really great places for hedgehogs to build their nests.