Green walls

[goosey]

We have our Green buildings thread now waht a bout a green walls .

In England there are various styles of dry stone walling, used as bounderies for farmland for hundreds of years with many that old still standing.
In the North there are goodness knows how many thousands of miles of typical dry stone walls made from what ever stone is local. In the Lake District National Park alone there are 3000 miles worth.



Then in the West country (I think it is Cornwall) they make them differently, with two tapering inward with the height of parrallel wall then filled with small stones and earth and turfted on top. With the self-sewing of plants these after time look like hedges and not wall at all.
I haven't seen these myself so have no image to add of this type of wall, but if anyone else has, please............

In The Netherlands I have never come across anything like that, but this weekend found another way of making walls. The ones I noticed look as if they are new, but there are possibly old established ones there I never noticed as they blended in so well.

These were seen on Texel and are made of big slabs or turf/ earth. As you see the first is a "juvenile wall" but even so, flora is growing, the second must me older as it has lichen growing. I think in the not too distant future they will be truely green walls!

[goosey]

Not a natural wall, but a natural fence. This is next to a lake (the vogelmeer) in the NP Zuid Kennemerland and is a used along the pathway to a birding hide so people can come and go without disturbing the birds on the lake.
It is made using willow a natural resource which is abundant all over the NP so costs absolutely nothing, and laying the branches between the parallel uprights about 40-50 wide. It looks rather good too. It is new, and the first time I have seen it, before there was some sort of rush woven fencing which was less appealing and didn't fit in so well and wouldn't provide cover and hidy-holes for small birds, mammals and insects like this does.

[chris butterworth]

If you look closely at most old hedges in Britain you will see they are made by the same layering method, usually using whatever scrub / trees are available. As long as the stem is not cut right through and a bit of the bark / cambium layer is left connected to the rootstock the plant will throw up new vertical shoots that can be layered into the hedge in future years. The style of the hedge in the photo looks very like the Midland system ( the commonest over here ).

Chris

[goosey]

Originally Posted by chris butterworth

If you look closely at most old hedges in Britain you will see they are made by the same layering method, usually using whatever scrub / trees are available. As long as the stem is not cut right through and a bit of the bark / cambium layer is left connected to the rootstock the plant will throw up new vertical shoots that can be layered into the hedge in future years. The style of the hedge in the photo looks very like the Midland system ( the commonest over here ).

Chris

I have seen this done on TV, its one of those things like drystone walling and I always think I wouldn't mind giving that a go.

The hedge in post two has just been layered up with branches, no existing tree's/shrubs being cut and bent to form a live growing structure. Though I imagine plants will self-deed and grow though and up it.

[paul m]

Coincidentally, we decided to renovate the hawthorn hedgerow at the end of our garden - it had grown rather tall and leggy. The layering was simply a matter of sawing off the tops of the trees and then almost sawing through the bases. Done about six weeks ago, the shrubs are now regrowing both from the root and from nodes all the way along the stem.


Just hope they make good growth before the oak canopy closes in the wood!

[Hennreypaul]

The hawthorn hedgerow will suit at the end of the garden only, hope so that when the trees will grow there, the whole garden will look attractive :

[goosey]

This wood pile of some very large trunks and branches of mixed types has been made into a fence which runs the length of about 20m long and is 1.4m tall. For years it was a just a couple of tree trunks end to end, the last time I looked here it was starting to be built - now it is looking great.
There is an amazing amount of fungi growing on this structure which hides the back of a hotel backing on to the NP.




( I will add a llink to the fungi thread I will write about it - I know you can't wait )
As promised - you can view the fungi here -
Wood pile

[Drosera]

Originally Posted by goosey

It is made using willow a natural resource which is abundant all over the NP so costs absolutely nothing, and laying the branches between the parallel uprights about 40-50 wide. It looks rather good too. It is new, and the first time I have seen it, before there was some sort of rush woven fencing which was less appealing and didn't fit in so well and wouldn't provide cover and hidy-holes for small birds, mammals and insects like this does.

Swedish/Scandinavian form of fencing called Gärdesgård. Widespread use - especially in northern Sweden.
Roundpole fence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia