What a day on the hedge looks like

A day starts with clearing: brambles, dead wood and side branches come out so you can see each stem down to the ground. Then you work along the row one stem at a time, cutting, laying and tucking each one into the last, and stop every few yards to drive stakes and weave the binding along the top. A practiced hedge layer finishes around 20 yards of hedge in a day. A beginner manages three to five, and spends a good part of the first morning on clearing alone. The work happens between late fall and the end of winter, so expect cold hands, mud and a fire-sized pile of brush by the afternoon.

Bare, thorny hedge stems tangled together in winter — Bare hedge stems in winter

The right hedge

Stems 2 to 4 inches thick at the base and 8 to 12 feet tall, usually 8 to 15 years after planting or after the last laying. Hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel and field maple are the classic species. In North America, hawthorn and Osage orange rows respond the same way.

The pleaching cut

A long downward cut on the back of the stem, starting a foot or so above the ground and running to within an inch or two of the far side. What is left is a thin tongue of bark and sapwood that bends like a hinge and keeps the stem fed.

The lay

Each stem (now called a pleacher) goes over at roughly 30 to 45 degrees, always in the same direction and uphill where the ground slopes, because sap rises more easily that way.

The heel

The stub left standing at the cut is trimmed off low and sloping so rain runs off it. New shoots grow from here, and these become the next hedge.

Stakes

Straight poles about 5 feet 6 inches long, driven in along the line every 18 inches or so and threaded through the pleachers to hold them.

Binders

Long flexible rods, traditionally hazel, twisted along the tops of the stakes like rope to lock everything down against wind and livestock.

Regional styles

Midland, South of England, Derbyshire, Welsh and dozens of others differ in stake spacing, how much brush is left on each side and whether the top is bound at all. Learn whichever one your course teaches. The cut is the same in all of them.

Is the hedge ready to lay?

Hedgelink Free guidance on the hedge management cycle and how to tell when a hedge is ready to lay

Choosing a billhook and keeping it sharp

Weight

Pick one you can swing with one hand for an hour, usually 1.5 to 2 pounds. A heavy blade feels powerful in the store and wrecks your accuracy by midday.

Blade shape

A single-edged blade 9 to 10 inches long with a modest hooked nose suits a beginner. Double-edged patterns have a second blade on the back that sits close to your face on the backswing.

Bevel and steel

Look for a forged carbon steel blade with a long, shallow bevel. A thick, blunt wedge of an edge bruises the stem and splits the hinge.

Handle

It should fill your gloved hand and end in a swell or hook that stops the tool sliding out when wet.

Used tools

Old forged billhooks from farm sales are often better steel than new budget ones. Check that the blade has no cracks and the handle is tight.

Before every session

A dozen strokes per side with a sharpening stone, working from the handle toward the nose with your fingers behind the edge. Touch it up again at lunch. A sharp billhook cuts where you aim it. A dull one glances off, which is how most cuts to the leg happen.

Carrying and storage

Keep the blade in a sheath or wrapped when you walk the hedge line, and wipe it with an oily rag before it goes away wet.

Edge tools, thorns and bent wood

Get taught first

Billhooks, axes and saws cause deep cuts when used by guesswork. Learn the stance and the cut from an instructor before you work alone.

No chainsaw as a beginner

Professionals use one on thick stems, but only after chainsaw training and in cut-resistant leg protection, a helmet and a visor. Start with hand tools. A hedge too heavy for a billhook and a saw is a hedge to leave to someone qualified.

Protective gear every time

Thorn-proof gauntlets, wraparound eye protection, long sleeves and sturdy boots with good grip. Blackthorn punctures are known for turning septic, so clean any thorn wound the same day and see a doctor if a joint swells.

Keep your free hand and legs out of the line of the blade

Cut downward and away from you, with your feet apart and the stem between you and the swing.

Space

Stay at least two tool lengths (about 10 feet) from anyone else, and tell them before you lay a stem toward them.

Bent wood is loaded

A half-cut stem under tension can spring back or split up its length. Stand to the side when you bend it down, never over it.

Roadside hedges

Traffic, buried cables and overhead lines make these a job for trained crews with signs and permits.

Never work alone out of phone reach

Carry a first aid kit with a pressure bandage and tell someone where you are and when you will be back.

An axe head resting in a weathered stump, dark woodland blurred behind — An axe set in a stump between cuts

Owner's permission

A hedge always belongs to someone, and boundary hedges often to two people. Get a clear yes from every owner before a single cut. Laying changes how a hedge looks for years, and cutting one without consent can be treated as criminal damage.

Dormant season only

Hedges are laid after leaf fall and before the buds break, roughly October through early March in Britain and Ireland and late fall through late winter in most of the United States. Stems cut while in full leaf often die.

Nesting birds

The same window keeps you out of the nesting season. Disturbing or destroying an active nest is against the law in many places, including the UK (Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981), Ireland (Wildlife Acts) and the United States (Migratory Bird Treaty Act). If you find an active nest, stop work on that stretch.

Farm hedge rules

In England, hedges on agricultural land may not be cut or trimmed from March 1 through August 31. Ireland bans hedge cutting on uncultivated land from March 1 through August 31.

Protected hedges and trees

Some old hedgerows and the trees in them are legally protected, and conservation areas, easements and homeowner association rules can add local limits. Ask your local authority or county extension office if you are unsure.

Fires

Burning brush on site may need a permit or be banned outright. Check before you light one, or stack the brush as a habitat pile instead.

The rules, from the source

From first course to first hedge

Find a course or a demonstration

What you can lay in your first month

A single practice pleacher

One stem cut, bent over and still alive, repeated until the hinge stops snapping.

A few yards on a training day

A short staked length laid alongside an instructor, which is the standard result of a first course.

A bound section of your own

About five yards of staked and bound hedge on a row you have permission to work, laid over two or three winter days.

A set of stakes and binders

Straight poles and long flexible rods cut and pointed ready for the next length.

What trips beginners up

Expect slow yards

Three to five yards in a full day is a good first effort, and the clearing takes longer than the laying.

Expect snapped hinges

Cutting too deep, or forcing the stem down before the cut is long enough, breaks the tongue and kills that pleacher. Everyone loses a few. Leave a snapped stem in as dead filling and move on.

Expect to be sore

This is bending, swinging and dragging brush for hours. Forearms and lower back complain the next day.

Stop cutting too shallow

A short, steep cut leaves a thick hinge that will not bend and splits up the stem instead. The cut should be three to four times as long as the stem is thick.

Stop leaving tall heels

A high, flat stub collects water and rots, and the regrowth starts too high to thicken the base.

Stop working with a dull edge or a hedge that is too big

Both push you to swing harder, and that is when the blade ends up in a shin.

Stop skipping the binding

An unbound hedge looks finished until the first gale lifts the pleachers out of the stakes.

A low field hedge in leaf along a lane, with a tree at its end and pasture beyond — A field hedge in summer leaf

Why the kit is short

Teaching comes first, and a course or volunteer day supplies tools, so the kit below is what you buy to carry on afterward. It is small because the craft is: a billhook, a saw for stems too thick for it, a stone to keep the edge, and gloves and eye protection for the thorns. Loppers speed up clearing, and a mallet drives stakes and settles the binding. The axe and the long-handled brush hook are for later, on older or bramble-choked hedges. The stakes and binders themselves are not a store item: hedge layers cut them from hazel or other straight coppice wood, or buy bundles from a local woodland worker. There is deliberately no chainsaw on the list.

A pair of leather mitts and a few cut sticks laid on a plank bench, seen from above — Leather mitts and cut sticks on a bench

Kit for the hedge line

The first line is a course or training day, which you book with a local society or volunteer group and is not something you buy online. For the tools, compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the kit panel. Clicking a card selects it there. The billhook, saw, stone, gloves, glasses, loppers, mallet and first aid kit start in the kit. The small axe and the long-handled brush hook start out of it until you take on older or overgrown hedges.

Beginner hedge laying course or training day

Essential · Training

The pleaching cut and safe billhook handling are learned by doing them next to someone who can correct you, and a course provides the hedge, the tools and the permission.

Not sold on Amazon

Not sold on Amazon. Look for a beginner day run by a hedge laying society, a wildlife trust or a conservation volunteer group, taught by an experienced or accredited hedge layer with tools included. Paid courses typically run $60 to $150 a day, and volunteer task days are free.

Billhook

Essential · Core tools

This is the tool that makes the pleaching cut, trims the heel and strips side branches. Almost every cut in a laid hedge is made with it.

budget

Zenport K310 Brush Clearing Hand Sickle 9 Inch Steel Scythe Garden Machete

4.5(3.8K)

$25.95

Hedge Laying

What a day on the hedge looks like

How a hedge is laid

Choosing a billhook and keeping it sharp

Edge tools, thorns and bent wood

Season, nesting birds and permission

From first course to first hedge

What trips beginners up

Why the kit is short

Kit for the hedge line

Beginner hedge laying course or training day

Billhook

Pruning saw

Thorn-proof gauntlet gloves

Wraparound safety glasses

Sharpening stone for edge tools

Bypass loppers

Large wooden mallet

First aid kit with pressure bandage

Small forest axe

Long-handled brush hook