22/06/2026
๐ธ The willow hedge
We trimmed our willow hedge recently. It's nice and dense, almost fluffy looking. And it's curved so it provides shelter for the flower bed within. When we work on the garden all the time, it's easy to lose track of what was done when. Until we dig into the archives and see photos from a few years ago. It was one of these moments when we realised this hedge is only 3 years old! It's like magic! ๐
We didn't even have to remove any turf from the lawn, didn't place down any membrane. We planted in rooted sticks of Balfour willow (S. hookeriana) which we cut from one of our other trees in the previous year. We spaced them about 50 - 60cm apart and mulched with spent hops from a local brewery. We topped them up twice with more hops in the first 12 months or so and the rest of the maintenance is just the trimming of the hedge couple times per growing season and pulling out weeds from underneath once a year. The mulch underneath has provided a layer of soft organic matter so the weeds are easy to pull out. And in addition it the mulch provides living environment for microorganisms and insects and bugs of all kinds.
If you are considering growing a hedge, please try a natural method like this one, and you don't have to use hops. Just keep it plastic free if you can. The plastic sheeting doesn't earn you anything in the long run. The weeds still grow over the top of it eventually, but the artifical barrier stops the mulch from interacting with the soil, it completely separates the two layers of living environments and kills the soil underneath. Because even the bugs living in the soil need access to the surface, and vice versa. This connection needs to be preserved.
After all, gardening is about creating living environments. ๐
