Why a hedge beats a fence

A fence gives you a boundary. A hedge gives you a boundary, a larder, a windbreak and a nest site all in one. For small garden birds — house sparrows, blue and great tits, goldfinches, greenfinches, dunnocks — a mixed native hedge is probably the single most useful thing you can plant. It offers the dense, twiggy growth that sparrows need to roost in, the thorny tangle that keeps cats and magpies out, and a supply of berries and insects that runs from spring through to midwinter.

It also looks better than panel fencing, softens wind rather than funnelling it, and gives you something to watch on a grey Tuesday in February. A hedge is a long-term commitment, but it earns its keep within three or four years.

Choose a mixture, not a monoculture

The trick is to plant several native species together, because different birds want different things. Hawthorn feeds bullfinches and provides the thorniest nesting cover. Holly gives berries in the depths of winter when everything else has gone. Field maple and hazel are magnets for caterpillars, which is what blue tits are really after when they visit your garden in June.

Good species to build a mix around:

• Hawthorn — the backbone of any country hedge; haws in autumn, dense nesting cover.
• Blackthorn — early blossom for bees, sloes for thrushes, suckering habit that fills gaps.
• Hazel — catkins and nuts, plus superb caterpillar numbers.
• Field maple — brilliant autumn colour, aphids that tits strip eagerly.
• Holly — evergreen shelter and hard winter berries for blackbirds.
• Guelder rose and dog rose — flowers, hips and berries in one package.
• Crab apple — fruit that blackbirds and fieldfares will fight over.
• Hornbeam or beech — holds its dead leaves through winter, so it shelters birds when bare hedges do not.

Steer clear of leylandii, laurel and other dense evergreens if birds are your priority. They shed little, feed almost nothing and grow into a boundary dispute.

Siting it properly

Think about the mature size before you dig. Most of these species will happily reach 3–5 metres if left, and a hedge that is 1.2 metres wide is a wildlife hedge; one clipped to 40 centimetres is a fence made of twigs. Give it room.

Plant on the windward side of the garden if you can — usually the north or west — and it will shelter the whole plot. Keep it clear of drains, paths and your neighbour's light. In England and Wales, neighbours can complain to the council about evergreen hedges over two metres, so it pays to agree a height with them before planting rather than after.

Planting bare-root whips in winter

Bare-root whips are cheap, establish faster than potted plants and can go in any time from November to March, provided the ground is not frozen or waterlogged. Order 60–90 centimetre whips and plant them in a double, staggered row about 45 centimetres apart, which gives you roughly five plants per metre of hedge.

• Clear a strip at least 60 centimetres wide of grass and perennial weeds. Grass will out-compete young whips every time.
• Dig a trench or individual holes, fork the base to break up any pan, and mix in a little well-rotted compost.
• Plant to the same depth the whips were growing in the nursery — look for the soil mark on the stem.
• Firm in properly with your heel, then mulch 7–8 centimetres deep, keeping it clear of the stems.
• Fit spiral guards or a mesh sleeve around each whip if rabbits, deer or voles are about.

Do not add fertiliser. You want roots, not soft leafy growth that the frost will cut back.

The first three years

Water new whips well in their first summer — about ten litres each per week in dry spells — and keep the strip weeded. After that they should fend for themselves.

Pruning is where most people go wrong. Cut the sides lightly in the first winter to encourage bushy growth from the base, and take the tops down by about a third. After that, trim in late winter or early spring, ideally February, and never between March and August when birds are nesting. Cut the sides on a slight taper so the base stays wide and leafy rather than going bare and leggy.

Getting the most out of it for birds

Once established, a hedge works hardest if you leave it a little untidy. Trim it every second or third year rather than annually, so berries have a chance to form, and cut only one side or one section at a time. A few gaps at the base are useful for dunnocks and wrens, and a small log pile beside the hedge will pull in insects.

Add a bird bath within a metre or two, because cover and water together are what turn a garden from a flyover into a territory. Put up a couple of nest boxes facing north or east, and resist the urge to spray the hedge for aphids — those aphids are next month's blue tit food.

Plant it now, leave it slightly wild, and within a few winters you will hear sparrows bickering in it before you have opened the back door.