Hit the Dirt; Hedgerows

Hi this is Claire Ackroyd and this is hit the dirt head rose a very important part of any English person's life. And I thought but since it's not really any more exactly gardening season little meditation on pages would not be out of place. Anybody who grows up in England lives with hedges and hedgerows far far more than the average American person does. And to start with I was wondering what the difference is between a hedge and a hedgerow decided that to me anyway. You sort of a me a boundary is something that divides one property or one space from another. There's a sort of formal part of the landscape where the hydro countries are whole the sort of linear ecosystem that the old hydros in England have become. They are complex communities of plants animals and birds that have been around in England. Forever they are in fact some of the most ancient artifacts in England. The look of the English countryside is very much characterized by the hedges the sort of patchwork effect that you see

when you stand on a hill and look down over England is completely dependent on the hedges for separating the one space from another. Without its head rose England's countryside really wouldn't be what it is. There antiquity is a very interesting part of the aspect of the hedgerows in England. The enclosure of land in England began in the Middle Ages the prove the purposes of confining stock and improving small pieces of land and it continued it really sort of rolled in the 17th and 18th centuries when enclosures removed land from common grazing rights and enclosed it for production when the demand for agricultural products increased and all the hedges that you now see in England. They way back to those times. The oldest ones being as old as the Middle Ages there are very few buildings left in England that are as old as many of the hedges are and they are in fact some of the most ancient artifacts in the English countryside.

Another kind of hedge which is you know quintessentially English is the sort of big formal stately you hedge is that sort of surround big old stately homes there are some wonderful huge Hedges I think sorry incest that is a town in the sort of central west of England that has some of the most extraordinary hedges the old you had just there for 500 years old and they're clipped by people who walk on them and sort of snowshoes. They're so big that they're no longer reachable from any kind of contraption that can straddle them. And so the guys with head shears walk on these huge old hedges the sort of great big boat things on their feet. And the lovely clipped formal hedges all the topiary which is just a sort of a growth out of hedges on a completely different sort of style and belonging to a different sort of class of people than the hedgerows in England who are another sort of feature of English landscapes that I don't know whether they belong in the American landscape at all but possibly to talk about hurdles that people thinking

about separating out spaces using living plants as a way to separate the spaces. There's some theories about the dating of hedges in England which is kind of interesting. The commonest hedging material is I can only think this Latin name Chris Chris Joyner the single seed Hawthorne which is also known as the Kwikset. And the reason it was called Kwikset is because it talks very quickly as a hedge. And you could stick rows of little cutting pieces into the ground. And I think one of the oldest sort of Origins Of Nursery propagation in England was the business of producing bundles and bundles bundles of really got into a quick set so that people could plant hedges at speed. It's thick dense and thorny it will keep sheep in and probably not wolves but it will confine Starke and it's a material that you can grow up and then cut down and have it sprout out from the roots again which is an essential characteristic for a good hedge in the practice of cutting

and laying hedges in England where you let them grow up tall cut them down lay the cut pieces into a sort of woven fence which makes a barrier while the hedge really grows is a thing that really you can only do with the Kwikset Hawthorn as a move for agriculture in England. For more efficient agriculture moves ahead some of the hedges are disappearing and so it's sort of incumbent upon many the English to plant new Hadjis. So I'm going to end with a rather nice quote from V to cite Phil West who writes rather patronizing about Americans which is something that the British or other love to do and here is her thoughts on hedges. She says Americans must be far more brotherly hearted than we are for they do not seem to mind being overlooked. They have no sense of private enclosure. They never plan hedges to cut themselves off from the gaze of the possible. Nor do they plant hedges between their own garden and their neighbors. All is open. Walk in walk in they seem to say uncordial invitation. Perhaps she would we should emulate the democratic spirit. But I doubt if we have a show how it is it tonally entirely at variance with our traditional idea of our own bit of ground surrounding our house

our home be it large or small is sacred to ourselves. Whatever our American friends many American friends may do we should continue to plant a hedge to block our immediate neighbors out. So that was Claire Ackroyd and we decided for West and you've been listening to the dirt.