Fruiting Hedges Suit Both The Home Owner And The Birds

By Author: Jen Smith
Total Articles: 17
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Plants that form effective hedges with the added bonus of ornamental fruits are well worth considering when planting a hedge. Fruiting hedges are often both colourful and popular with wildlife, especially birds. Evergreen Berberis, Pyracanthas, Cotoneasters and Hollies all have persistent foliage and highly ornamental fruits whereas raspberries and loganberries have the added benefit of edible fruits.

Mixed Native hedges provide a bounty of seeds, fruits and rose hips for wildlife, with a wide ranging mix of native hedge species these fruits are borne in succession through the seasons maximising the conservation value of the hedge. A number of native hedging plants produce edible fruits including Elder, Hazel, Quickthorn (Hawthorn) and Blackthorn. The most ‘wildlife friendly’ hedges are those with the widest possible mix of native hedging shrubs. Ideally the hedge should be quite wide and the vegetation at the hedge base should be left ‘rough’ to widen the corridor. This corridor is used by wildlife to get from one destination to another safely and protected. The fruits and flowers on the hedging are then the ...
... perfect food sources for the small animals. Couple the corridor layout with a wealth of food sources and

your garden will be a haven for a some of the 350 different wildlife species that inhabit and use hedging.

Most fruit trees can be grown as hedges provided the site is sunny. These dual purpose hedges can be particularly useful in small gardens. Conventional hedging can often overwhelm a smaller garden or provide too much in the way of foliage. If a suitable framework is constructed fruit trees can be grown as Cordon or Espalier ‘hedges’ taking up very little space and giving colour to a garden. By carefully selecting varieties the hedge will yield fruit from early July until late autumn.

Fruit trees can also be planted at intervals in conventional hedges should a budget not accommodate a full fruit tree hedge or simply if a hedge mixture is desired.

A number of soft fruit plants have hedging plants
potential, a neatly kept row of Raspberries can make a good dividing screen. Loganberries, Grapevines and Blackberries may be trained on a wire framework, Redcurrants can also be grown as a Cordon hedge. Soft fruit hedges may need netting against birds unless you are prepared to share the crop but soft, fine netting can be sourced now that doesn’t detract or obscure the fruiting hedge.