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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Theres some wonderful urban hedge planting too 💚 no spirals needed here 💚species mix natve &great for urban setting (beech, holly, hornbeam, privet) 💚trimmed low early to prioritise basal branching density 💚well mulched with chip But can anyone spot the big problem?!

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Ive seen some management on my way to the meeting. This was layed, & is now getting a close trim, which will force out branching denstity in the base But.... those stakes are very upright for a welsh lay! Welsh styles normally have stakes at an angle (which makes me feel drunk)

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Reposted by Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek)

Rick @rickylongthread.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

A Horrible Truth That Shouldn’t Be….

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

What a glorious day to be in Wales! Im here chatting policy, but couldnt help getting up a bit early to check out the sights

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Thank you @phoebeweston.bsky.social for such a wonderful and optimistic article on Hedgerows! It's great to celebrate the wonders we have, appreciate the legacy, and use that to inform our combined future www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

Like the Ritz for wildlife: the joy of recreating England’s ancient hedges

Up and down the country, volunteers are coming together to plant more of these nature-rich reserves

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

1. I'm not actually sure, but maybe bullace? Might go back when in fruit 2. It's standard monogyna, but I was referreing to the weird nests-on-sticks elm in the middle. A result of suckering &static management 3. Currant! 4. spot on, old pleachers showing the marks left by last hedgelay Xyears ago

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

On a fasconating site visit today 10 points per photo to tell me what you see

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Where are you? Id guess youd only get them in *very* long established hedges, or ones cut from wildwood.

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

A funny old world, look what I found on a site visit today! Hedge currants Miles from any houses so as far as I can see its unlikely to be a garden escapee

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Reposted by Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek)

British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

Blossom is so often overlooked when we choose a new apple tree, but as this wonderful montage from @thepackingshedtamar on IG shows, some varieties have especially beautiful flowers. Scent also varies greatly from variety to variety.

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

YES! I love finding Redcurrant in the wild. Sometimes when you find one in a very old hedge (&you can rule out garden escapee) I use it as a sign of a *properly* ancient assart hedge; one left as strips when the ancient wildwood was cleared for fields.

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

Come on rain! Its dry as a bone on this here bank. And this mini restoration needs water!

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Reposted by Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek)

The Linnean Society of London @linneansociety.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Self-professed ‘hedgerow geek’ Megan Gimber is our John Spedan Lewis Emerging Leader Award 2025 winner! She has spent almost a decade advocating for the protection, management, and growth of the UK’s depleted hedgerows. @ptes-org.bsky.social @favcolourgreen.bsky.social www.linnean.org/the-...

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Its always a joy when the hedgebank stitchwort flowers

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

One of our new(ish) hedge oak pollards coming back to leaf & looking great We wanted the oak that popped up, but didnt have the space for a full canopied whopper This keeps it compact, gives us woodfuel on rotation and makes a great tree

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Fernhill farm open day was incredible. I got to show people some amazing hedges in a traditional laying cycle. I got to meet the wonderful @thread.and.yarn who has a hedgerow shawl knitting pattern (love!) and even learn about bark-ometers from Andy Rummings

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

I'm going to be at the Fernhill farm open day in the mendips today Ive been to the farm &drooled over their hedges before, do cant wait to be leading 2 sessions tomorrow; one practiacl management for farmers, one general knowledge for the public Lots going on all day!

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Can't keep a good beech down! This one used to be a layed hedge...

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Welcome to the water! I've lived aboard for 9 years - massive reduction in my carbon footprint, even bigger increase in my freedom, happiness and nature immersion

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

@elenapearce.bsky.social A fantastic talk! I use the open-mosaic wildwood to explain how cultural habitats which mimic this structure are so biologically diverse It can inform how we manage farmed habitats to integrate more diversity. Not just the structure but the temporal & spatial dynamism

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

I passed a worm this morning, worming its way down a concrete underpass. Itd progressed 3m since I passed it earlier Instincts were failing it. There was nothing for it down there. To the confusion & disgust of passers by, i took it to a scrap of grass, to face other town dangers

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Done! Win or not, its veen a great day This layed hedge is now the smallest itll be for the next 20-30 years. Its about to bush up and out, providing for wildlife of sll kinds for another lifecycle And tom got 4th place in his class! Not bad for his first competition

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Getting the binding on! This lovely basketry is actually to bind all the stakes together and give some structural rigidity to rhe hedge as a whole. You'd have to be a big bugger to have the strength to push through this!

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Cutting low down is key as it means all the new stems will come from ground level A good hedge is bushy at the bottom Some things use the top of a hedge, but most hedge wildlife needs a thick base. This is how we get that

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

His pleaching is good! But ambling up to the champions section I think Tom might have been taking too much brash out. Its looking a little skimpy compared to the champs

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Watching it bush back up from the base over the year is also incredibly satisfying!

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Every year :) id recommend the national championships too! This SoE one today is just south of Arundel, East Sussex, but a different site each year

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Its a strange hedge to do: one line has been coppiced so its thin and multi-stemmed, the other side hasnt so is chunky and still in maiden form Somehow Tom needs to try to make it look symmetrical..

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

There's novice category, intermediate, seniors , champion and veterans class. So whatever your skill level, you can take part. Its a great way to pick up tips& tricks from the judges and other layers too

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Today is the 40th South of England hedgelaying competition! More excitingly, its my husband (TomTheHedgelayer)s first time competing Its misty. The skylarks are singing. Its already more exciting than it has any business being

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Reposted by Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek)

Oliver Baines @outatmidnight.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

@favcolourgreen.bsky.social Our latest bit of hedgelaying (with last year's on the right) - looking forward to nature bursting forth! 🪻

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Today I'm at a hedgelaying competition (as a spectator!) in Cambridge on @linesmartin.bsky.social farm They're laying a young maiden hedge. This will thicken it right out from the base, make it a lot more robust, better for wildlife etc Also a great time to get those damn spirals removed

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Youre doing it all to gold standard. Good work! Dead hedging is another option for brash, or making biochar. The chip is great for mulching any new hedges you might be planning too Habitat piles are ace. Also a great way to speed up nat regen of you want a new tree somewhere

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

I get that question too! But mostly with gates..

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

For hedges SFI has good options &good flexibility. Either coppice/lay cycles, rotational, incremental trimming or a combination of all The hedge survey action is great too & v good to get payment for retaining/recruiting hedge trees BUT its currently somewhat undermined by pause to capital grants

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

A good method. As long as you can protect them without tree guards. If using spirals its a bit harder to do My fav method is the plant-leave-lay at 10yrs old Easy to lay at 10, returns with all multi stemed bushes from the ground up

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Ive never layed a pretty hedge yet, but theyve all come back much better than b4. Keep enough brash on for good habitat, but remove enough to ensure the stems put on growth from those low cut stools. Basal regrowth from that stool is your hedges next generation of growth, its secret to immortality

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Thank you! I do farm cluster group workshops in person if that is of interest?! Sharr thr good hedge geekery!

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

SFIs now insist on 1 tree per 100m (on average) Id actually recommend establishing them from within the hedge where possible. Theyll be mast trees for local nat regen so its important to keep that local diverse genetics A lot of tips& tricks to reduce trimming burden. Im working on an infographic

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Have you done much laying before? It is hard work but a lot of fun if youre into that kind of thing. And the joy of watching them spring back is as good as watching them grow in the first place!

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

Day 5: Another old hedge with pleachers at the base An increased trim line has helped this hedge; more branches, more leaves, less stress. But at the end of the day that's a sticky plaster to keep the remnants alive until the rest is restored This hedge needs restoration

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Megan Gimber (Hedge Geek) @favcolourgreen.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

Day 3: Overtrimmed, cultivated too close, this hedge has lost most of its stems now. Even the opportunistic elder which had self planted in the gaps is dying This wont be fixed by trimming changes. This one is even beyond rejuvenation it needs full restoration- coppice& re-plant

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