Following on from the 2014 hedge laying project the winter 2014/15 task to drive new roadside posts at 2 metre spacing has been undertaken by hedge layer Andrew Jarvis using a post thumper. This tool is excellent and in particular it stops the splitting of the top of the posts when these are driven into hard ground using a sledge hammer.
All of the posts were driven through the dead hedge created from the lop and top residues that arose from the hedge laying project.
Wide verge areas located in quiet lanes where the lane surface is level with the verge are prone to becoming ploughed up by off-road parking, flytip or becoming purpresture sites and so some visually compromising defence methods to protect same from these modern blights unfortunately becomes necessary to help maintain the visual ammenity of the countryside in The Chilterns AONB.
However, following complaints received from local residents re the untidy look of the dead hedge it was decided to chip this and then string wire between the fence posts. It was quite a job for Joe Currie and Duncan of Classic Tree Services to pull the dead hedge apart and then -
- feed this into the chipper, which is a very noisy process.
The chipper reduced the lop and top dead hedge to a small pile of wood particles in short order with 60 metres of dead hedge being chipped in just under 2 hours
Given that hawthorn contains many thorns it was very important to clean the road properly after completion of chipping by both raking and blowing to ensure that passing cyclists, motorists and dogs did not suffer tyre punctures or puncture wounds.
The cleared verge now has a certain sterility with no cover for wildlife birds and small mammals and has opened up the laid hedge to predation by deer.
Ken Hume OWG
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New Roadside Posts
