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How to lay a hedge. The South of England style, for Canterbury and Kent.

Most people who call about an overgrown hawthorn-hazel boundary hedge want to know whether to take it out and replant, or cut it hard and hope for the best. There’s a third option that has been standard practice on Kent hedgerows for centuries: lay it. Done correctly in the dormant season, a laid hedge comes back denser, lower and more stock-proof than almost anything you could replant, and it lasts decades without structural intervention. Here is how it is done in the South of England style.

What hedge laying is, and how it differs from cutting or reduction

Hedge laying is not trimming and it is not reduction. When you trim a hedge, you take material off the outside. When you reduce a hedge, you shorten it. When you lay a hedge, you cut through most of the stem of each main plant near the base, leaving just enough sapwood connected to the roots to keep the plant alive, and then bend the stem over at an angle along the line of the hedge. That partially cut stem, called the pleacher, continues to grow from the laid-over position, sending up dense vertical shoots along its length that within two to three years knit together into a thick, stock-proof, waist-high hedge.

The result looks like a hedge that has been carefully dismantled and folded sideways. In the first winter it is frankly odd-looking to anyone who has not seen it before. By the second spring the new vertical growth has covered it, and by the third year it is unrecognisable as a laid hedge: it reads simply as a very dense, well-structured native boundary.

This is a renovation technique, not a maintenance one. A healthy hedge being managed with regular cuts does not need laying. The candidates are hedges that have become gappy at the base because decades of side-trimming has shaded out the lower growth, hedges that have grown up into a line of small trees rather than a true hedge, and hedges where new planting has repeatedly failed to fill the gaps because the existing rootstock is too dominant.

Is your hedge ready to lay?

A hedge suitable for laying needs main stems in the 5 to 15 centimetre diameter range. Below 5cm and there is not enough sapwood to keep the plant alive once the stem is partially cut; the pleacher dries out before the new growth establishes. Above 20cm and the wood is too stiff to bend without splitting. The 15–20cm range is marginal and depends on species: hawthorn bends better than blackthorn at that size, and field maple better than either.

Age matters less than stem diameter. A neglected hedge that was last cut twenty years ago but has reasonably moderate-diameter stems is a better candidate than a younger hedge that has bolted into thick trunks from being repeatedly cut too hard and then left.

Species matters a great deal. The native mixed hedgerow species of the Canterbury downland and the Blean fringe, hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), hazel (Corylus avellana), field maple (Acer campestre), ash (Fraxinus excelsior), are all excellent candidates. These are the species found in the old field boundaries east and south of Canterbury: along the Nailbourne valley through Bridge, Bekesbourne and Patrixbourne, along the chalk track edges through Petham and Barham, and on the Stour valley margins through Chartham Hatch and Westbere.

Non-native species, including leylandii, cherry laurel, privet and thuja, are not suitable for laying. They do not regenerate from old wood in the way native species do. If you have an overgrown leylandii boundary in Hales Place or along the Sturry Road estates, laying is not the answer. Our two-year staged reduction guide covers the right approach for that situation.

The South of England style: what makes it specific to Kent

There are eight recognised regional styles of hedge laying in England, each adapted to the farming tradition and field-boundary stock of a particular area. The South of England style, which covers Kent, Surrey, East Sussex and West Sussex, is the one practised by the South of England Hedge Laying Society (SEHLS), which runs training courses and competitions across the region including in Kent.

The South of England style is characterised by pleachers laid at a consistent angle (typically 30–45 degrees from vertical), stakes driven every 45–50cm along the line of the hedge, and binders woven horizontally along the top to lock the pleachers in place and provide structural rigidity. The finished hedge is tighter and more bound-in than some northern styles, which suits the smaller, more domestic-scale field boundaries common in the Canterbury downland compared to the large arable boundary hedges of the Midlands.

The tool most associated with Kent hedge laying is the Kent pattern billhook. It has a deeper blade than the Berkshire pattern, with a short nose that is useful for working close to the base of the hedge, where the initial pleaching cut is made. The cutting angle of that base cut, roughly 45 degrees down through the stem leaving a thin sliver of sapwood intact on the upper side, is the technical heart of the operation. Too shallow and the stem snaps; too deep and you sever the sapwood connection and the pleacher dies.

November to late February: the only window

Hedge laying is dormant-season work only. The window runs from roughly November through to late February. In that period the plants’ sap is at its lowest, the stress of the partial stem cut is minimised, and the winter and early spring ahead allow the healing wound to callus before the growing season starts. Laid hedges worked in autumn establish more successfully than those laid at any other time: the cut stumps put out new basal growth from the following April, and by the second spring the pleacher shoots are a foot or more tall.

Late February is the absolute outer limit. I’d rather finish a laying job before mid-February and give the wound two to three weeks to begin callusing before the sap rises. The later you run into February, the more you are gambling on a cold March to hold off the growth flush until the healing is underway. For the full month-by-month picture of what can be done in Canterbury gardens across the year, see our hedge-cutting calendar.

The legal closure: 1 March to 31 August

Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1, it is a criminal offence to damage or destroy an active bird’s nest. The offence carries an unlimited fine and up to six months in prison per nest disturbed. “I did not check” is not a defence. This matters particularly for hedge laying because the work involves cutting into the body of the hedge in a way that is far more disruptive than a surface trim, and it is exactly the kind of disturbance that dislodges or destroys nests in the hedge interior.

For most purposes, the November-to-February window sits comfortably clear of the 1 March to 31 August closure. But if a large hedgerow laying project is running into late February, stop and wait for September rather than pressing on into March. In all cases, carry out a thorough visual inspection of the full hedge, including the interior canopy, immediately before work starts. Late migrants occasionally winter in hedges, and early nesters begin by late February.

For Blean-fringe properties at Tyler Hill, Rough Common, Honey Hill and Harbledown, there is a second legal layer: hazel dormice are a European Protected Species under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017. Their hibernation season runs roughly November to April. A late October to early November start for laying work at these properties allows dormice to be active and visible rather than already settled into hibernation at the hedge base. See our dormice guide for the full Blean-fringe protocol.

The technique: pleachers, stakes and binders

The sequence of operations is consistent across the South of England style.

Clear the base. Remove all material from the base of the hedge: bramble, ivy, dead brash, accumulated leaf matter. You need clear access to the stems at the lowest point, typically 10–20cm above ground level, where the pleaching cut will be made.

Cut the pleachers. Working along one side of the hedge, make the angled cut on each main stem near the base. The cut goes in at roughly 45 degrees down through the wood, leaving a thin tongue of sapwood connected on the side closest to the direction of lay. The tongue should be about a third of the stem diameter. Too much tongue and the stem will not bend; too little and the plant dies. This is the part that takes practice: the first few cuts in a new hedge will be tentative, and the angle will be misjudged at least once. A split stem can sometimes be saved by laying it carefully and binding it in place; the split often calluses if the sapwood connection remains.

Lay the pleachers. Once the cut is made, gently bend the stem over in the direction of lay. The stem should arc down smoothly from the cut point at 30–45 degrees from vertical. Work along the hedge, tucking each pleacher behind the previous one. Do not force a stem that is resisting strongly: it may be too thick, or the cut may need to go a little further. Take your time.

Drive the stakes. Once a run of pleachers is down, drive pointed stakes into the ground every 45–50cm using a mallet. Hazel or ash stakes are the traditional choice, 1.2–1.5m long for a hedge going to about 90cm finished height. The stakes hold the laid pleachers in position and give the binders something to weave against.

Weave the binders. Long, flexible hazel rods or sweet chestnut binders are woven horizontally along the top, interlaced between the upright stakes, pulling everything tight and locking the structure. A well-bound South of England lay has three to five binder courses along the top and looks almost like a rustic wattle fence for the first winter.

After laying: first-year care on Canterbury chalk

A newly laid hedge needs little intervention but it does need some. On the chalk-over-Seaford-Chalk geology that underlies much of the Canterbury downland, including the Old Dover Road ridge, the Petham and Barham areas, Bishopsbourne and the Nailbourne valley, the well-draining shallow soil means that newly laid hedges can dry at the root in a dry spring. If March and April are dry, as they often are on the Canterbury chalk, water the laid-hedge root zone during the first spring: not the stem, which is now horizontal, but the base of each plant at soil level.

A 10cm layer of coarse bark mulch along the base, kept clear of the stems themselves, reduces moisture loss and suppresses the weed competition that will come in once the hedge interior is opened to light. Avoid mushroom compost on Canterbury chalk: the pH is already high and additional lime-rich material is not needed.

In the first year, do not cut the new vertical shoots emerging from the pleachers. They need the full growing season to establish before any trimming. In the second year, a light shaping trim can be done in late August or September. By the third year the hedge is managing normally.

Watch the technique

The South of England Hedge Laying Society produced a step-by-step demonstration of the full laying process, showing the pleaching cut, the laying angle, staking and binding in clear sequence. The video is available via Hedgelink, the UK national hedgerow partnership, and is the most detailed available record of the South of England style as it is currently practised in Kent and the surrounding counties. It is worth watching in full before attempting a first lay.

Video: How to Traditional Hedge Laying in the South of England Style by the South of England Hedge Laying Society, hosted via Hedgelink UK. All rights remain with the creators.

Sources: Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1; Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, regulation 43; National Hedgelaying Society regional styles guidance; South of England Hedge Laying Society (SEHLS) demonstration video via Hedgelink UK; Royal Horticultural Society hedge renovation guidance; CPRE England hedgerow guidance; The Field Magazine, “Hedgelaying: a map of the country”.