Sometimes you don’t recognize a good idea until it comes to
you right when you need it. Apparently this concept – a dead hedge – has been
around since the dawn of sticks in man’s yard, and this year was the perfect
time for me to implement it at my new place. I came across the idea while
visiting Woodlands
Garden in Decatur where this concept was used to mark the edge of a
path next to a steep drop, like a natural guardrail.
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| My dead hedge |
For the dead hedge at Woodlands Garden, fresh branches were available so the stakes to create the shape were twigs themselves. I decided to buy premade 24-inch stakes at the local hardware store. My husband helped pound them into the ground in a staggered arrangement where each stake was 2 feet apart.
We did this in an initial test section of 8 stakes (4 on
each side, total span being 6 feet). I filled the space with dead branches
(unfortunately too brittle to do any weaving). The bank of the creek is
potentially unstable over the long term due to severe rains causing erosion, so
we placed the hedge 2-4 feet away from the edge. At some point, it came to me
that this low hedge could deter deer
from a quick browse. A third win! I had a number of Virginia sweetspire (Itea virginica) shrubs in pots so I decided to
plant them in that 2-4 foot area on the creek side of the hedge and so far they
are mostly doing well; there was some light browsing where the land dipped; I
should have made the fence higher to account for that. I’ll fix it.
I was so excited by this extra benefit that I bought more
stakes and we created a hedge that spans a good portion of the creek (with ends
tapered to create a closed off area should a deer feel curious enough to try a
side entry), approximately 110 feet long. I’ve since added more plants like
yellowroot (Xanthorhiza simplicissima)
and pawpaw (Asimina triloba) to my
edge. On the sunniest spots, I scattered some partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata) and jewelweed
(Impatiens capensis) seeds.
Of course we all know that this will benefit wildlife (win
#4): places to hide, shelter, or just a local feast for our friends the decomposers
are all good benefits. I’m also hoping that it might be an endpoint for
microstegium so that the area by the creek (other side of the hedge) can be
just native (win #5!).
It’s not the prettiest thing but it doesn’t need to be. The stakes will weather and over the years I might be able to weave in some fresh branches to give it a more ‘creative’ look. I’m sure the Virginia creeper nearby will latch onto it and give it a wild look in several years.
It is amazing that I could find so many sticks, but I still have more I can add. With this many trees, sticks are always dropping. On the picture below you can see a top-down view of the hedge.
This could be a tidier brush pile solution for yards that can't be as wild (like HOA).
If you’re dead hedge-curious, check out this post listing other reasons to create a dead hedge: https://www.bobvila.com/diy/ways-to-use-dead-hedges/
