Practice what you pleach

Creating a new hedgerow was the task tonight for GoodGym Richmond. The team met Ken halfway down the Star and Garter Hill alongside Petersham Common, where he explained to us the science and the art behind hedgerow laying and the importance it has to help encourage biodiversity and protect the natural area from the roadside. After a demonstration, in which he made it look effortless to chop and flex a tree, we shared our tools and got to work.

The first part of the pleaching technique was to clear any branches that might get in the way, and then to make a diagonal chop along the bottom of the tree, and then downwards. This then allowed the tree to be bent over, and as the bark is still intact, the tree is still alive and will continue to grow in its new horizontal position. Cue a variety of different styles from the different GoodGymmers - from Sam’s more gung-ho approach, to Suze’s delicate sawing, and Liz, who profusely apologised to her branchling with each cut she made.

Ken might have given a great demonstration but he missed out rule one of saw use - don’t try and chop your fingers off! Luckily everyone’s digits did remain intact, although there was a hunt for plasters during the evening!

Soon most of the trees were prepped for stage two, with Anita making progress along the rest of them. Liz folded down the first tree and a domino effect ensued - soon the once vertical branches were neatly lined up more horizontally. This meant we were ready for part three, and the stakes were raised (literally, not figuratively - there was a lot less at stake and a reduced risk to peripheries now).

Rosie and Beth had done a solid job of cutting down the wooden posts to size, ready to be lined up and hammered into the ground. There were a few discrepancies about the distances between each post (Sam apparently has a lot longer forearms than Ken), but by this point, our hard work was starting to look a little like a fence!

The final pre-prepared stake went into the hedgerow, and we admired our Monday evening handiwork from the roadside. A quick group snap in the browning leaves, we headed off to enjoy the autumnal evening. We will be back on Saturday for a community mission to help carry on creating our hedgerow - so come along and pleach your full potential!