At the end of February I undertook a short section of hedge-laying for a landowner in Puttenham near Guildford. The hedge in question was mainly holly with some hazel as well. All of it was tall and straggly and it would need a lot of work to get it down into a laid hedge.

The landowner had previously agreed to reduce the height of the holly in particular as there was no way I could lay the stems otherwise. Holly is a particularly dense hardwood and is thus very heavy and difficult to control during laying. Even having being reduced, the stems were still very heavy and awkward to manipulate into position.

Undeterred, I quickly got into my stride and the hedge started to take shape.

I had to coppice some of the stems completely as they were just too big to lay safely. Others had totally grown around their neighbours, so they had to be cut out of the hedge.

By the end of the day, I had got the hedge down and I was very pleased with the result. I had thought that it might look a bit gappy due to the size and spacing of the stems but it turned out not to be the case. The owner now has a much more solid boundary hedge that will be easier to maintain as well as a nice feature at the front of his property.