# do you hedgerow on your homestead



## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

over in the u.k. they have hedgerows...some are mounds with growth on them .some are living trees partially cut and laid over and upright shoots going for the sky..its all sorta like a living fence.

they have all sorts of goodies in these areas for use and they act as wildlife areas.one thing i know they encourage is hazel nuts.

do you plant or manage anything similar on your homestead?


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

[youtube]V-mxgM3MVEc[/youtube]


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## Raeven (Oct 11, 2011)

Sort of. The entire front of my property is bordered by a creek (one of three). I encourage heavy blackberry growth along it, only pruning where they interfere with fence line of my pasture. My reasoning is that it a) provides shelter for wildlife; b) provides free food for wildlife and me; and c) discourages trespassers.


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## mistletoad (Apr 17, 2003)

Yep. We only have a small laid hedge, but we have hedgerows on 4 sides as well as where the old cross fencing was. I have to build one new hedgerow along our back fence. 

My favourite hedgerows back home were the ones with a ditch in the middle - we always played in those as they were dry most of the year. We don't have any of those here.


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

interesting talk

[youtube]kY5ulVbcJEk[/youtube]


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

when i was in natural resources class wildlife biologist always talked about the edge effect....the edge of a forest in the most used and most productive.


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## billooo2 (Nov 23, 2004)

Some time ago I looked into it.......in England, apparently (from the sources I found)......the 'preferred plant' was hawthorn (complete with thorns). They talked about how far apart to plant them....then as they grow, you bend them over and inter-twine them......so it becomes an impenetrable (sp?) barrier.

I like the concept of a 'living fence,' but I think that I would choose something other than hawthorn. There used to be 'professionals' that come to your place to "dress/trim/maintain' the hedges.......they wore heavy leather sleeves for protection from the thorns.

I knew a family that used to have an apple orchard in New Hampshire. Deer were a problem.....especially as the apples started to ripen. They said that at one time they planted multiflora around the border of the orchard. It worked as a great barrier to the deer, but they said that it got 'out of control......and it was too hard to work with......so they took 
a bush hog to it....

I would be interested in hearing if other people have any experience with 
hedges.....


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## Guest (Dec 31, 2012)

I've transplanted thornless blackberry clones and trained them on my fence around the orchard. Similar. If I didn't already have way too many fruit trees, I'd grow a mess of them down both sides of the driveway, and espalier them.


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## Raven12 (Mar 5, 2011)

I sent you naked pictures, Zong.


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## Raven12 (Mar 5, 2011)

I said it in the other thread but that is gone now.


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

[youtube]QQcHtXA1MUA[/youtube]


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## billooo2 (Nov 23, 2004)

Another challenge I have......finding something something that the goats would not eat before it got mature enough to function as a barrier. :shrug:


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

getting wild ramps to grow under the small trees would be a bonus....i tried garlic but it doesnt do well .


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## billooo2 (Nov 23, 2004)

elkhound said:


> getting wild ramps to grow under the small trees would be a bonus....i tried garlic but it doesnt do well .


Do ramps just grow in certain areas??

I know they have them in West Virginia, but I have never heard of them here in Ohio. I get some 'wild onions,' but they are like very skinny scallions that never get large enough to do anything with.


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

[youtube]V6lNv6s5C1c[/youtube]


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

billooo2 said:


> Do ramps just grow in certain areas??
> 
> I know they have them in West Virginia, but I have never heard of them here in Ohio. I get some 'wild onions,' but they are like very skinny scallions that never get large enough to do anything with.


ramps grow in Ohio and as far north as Michigan.whynot harvested a bunch in her area in Wisconsin.


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

[youtube]8j4OD6vkcA4[/youtube]


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

[youtube]ewVpXLQDKyI[/youtube]


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## cindilu (Jan 27, 2008)

Really enjoying your links Elk, thank you for giving me yet more ideas to play with in my head.


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## Laura (May 10, 2002)

Hedgerows and windbreaks occur naturally here in PNW. The hard part is keeping them at bay. Blackberries and roses take over everything, trees grow to shade. I'm still undecided what to plant on my fencelines. Hawthorne is nice, but harbors fireblight which I don't want to battle in the orchard. The elk can't find my orchard since the blackberries took over those fences.


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## Guest (Dec 31, 2012)

In Pennsylvania, many people plant Rose of Sharon and after three years, cut them so they lay sideways...the trees start growing up again from the one limb left and it makes a kind of fence with flowers and leaves..I liked it!!!!

oh I also found out that Rose of Sharon is a bush unless nobody prunes it and then it grows to over ten feet and is a tree...LOL..


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## BetsyK in Mich (May 14, 2002)

Thanks Elk, now you've sent me off in another direction, had been thinking about some type of natural barricade around the yard at my new homestead, will be studying this more. You have so many different interests and try so many different things, I wish I were a neighbor so I could just observe what you come up with next. Keep exploring and sharing!!


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## doodlemom (Apr 4, 2006)

With a New England woodland edge hedge an understory of assorted black,red,yellow raspberries of different ripening times underlaid with woodland strawberries interplanted every 5 to 10 feet with elderberry, amelanchier family, eleagnus family, crataegus family, rosa rugosa, ribes family, hazelnut, and yellowhorn for a maintenance free hedge. It's a woodchuck magnet here as new dens try to go in along the rows every year, but very productive from an edibility standpoint.


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## Groene Pionier (Apr 23, 2009)

I have some kind of hedge (posted it before) and I don't like it at all. We dont'have a lot of space here and my garden is small (for US measurements). I am still afraid that I can't grow a lot next to the hedge because of the roots, I did some digging the other day and there were a lot of roots where I didn't expect them. I will need to build some kind of raised beds and hopefully some vegetables will grow... 
But you all have all these acres of land....you will not have the same problems


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

caution rambling ahead....lol...during ww2 ours and germanys tanks could get through those big hedges and when they encountered each other the front guy was killed and the others were stuck between the hedge rows.an american mechanic took the idea from a sickle bar mower and made a giat version of the blade on front of tank and then our small tanks could bust through hedges to safety.the blade didnt work back and forth but the tank pushing on it made it cut.


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## sidepasser (May 10, 2002)

Elkhound, have you wanted Tales of Green Valley on Youtube?

They have an episode that shows how to create a living hedge and how to interweave the saplings/hedges to keep the livestock contained.

Here is a link to the episode:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqpsie_e5-tales-from-the-green-valley_lifestyle#.UOIBQ-R9K88

I just love this series, I would give anything to live like that. I have lived close to that life, but had to go back to work so could not continue. I hope this helps as it is how I created hedge rows on my farm. Saved a lot on fencing.


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

i have watched it numerous times....lol...i love ruth and the boys.


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

around here hedgerows fall victim to roundup and brush killers.


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## arcticow (Oct 8, 2006)

elkhound said:


> over in the u.k. they have hedgerows...some are mounds with growth on them .some are living trees partially cut and laid over and upright shoots going for the sky..its all sorta like a living fence.
> 
> they have all sorts of goodies in these areas for use and they act as wildlife areas.one thing i know they encourage is hazel nuts.
> 
> do you plant or manage anything similar on your homestead?


Around here, they are fencerows that ain't been cleaned in 20 years...


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## Shrek (May 1, 2002)

elkhound said:


> over in the u.k. they have hedgerows...some are mounds with growth on them .some are living trees partially cut and laid over and upright shoots going for the sky..its all sorta like a living fence.
> 
> they have all sorts of goodies in these areas for use and they act as wildlife areas.one thing i know they encourage is hazel nuts.
> 
> do you plant or manage anything similar on your homestead?


Yes I do. I transplant wild yaupon hedge , long thorn wild blackberry and stinging nettle along my outer t post and welded wire fencing as I remove it from unwanted areas. So far in 15 years I have about half my perimeter reinforced with it.

Works good for perimeter security , ground level wind break and privacy except for a few years ago when the county was chasing an unlicensed illegal alien who tried to run "through the bushes" after he wrecked his truck , ran on foot and got pinned against the welded wire by the sticker bushes and the fire department had to cut out a six foot section of my fence so the guy could be taken into custody.

I had to prune back about 3 feet on either side of the gap so I could weave in a fence patch without getting eat up myself but in the years since the yaupon , berries and nettle have refilled the gap.

When I mow or tend the grounds near it I keep a pair of hand pruners, a campsaw
and a long arm welders leather glove on me to prune , trim or entwine the hedge shoots if I need to to keep them from getting too thick on the inside of my central property area without biting me.


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## billooo2 (Nov 23, 2004)

Shrek said:


> I had to prune back about 3 feet on either side of the gap so I could weave in a fence patch without getting eat up myself but in the years since the yaupon , berries and nettle have refilled the gap.
> 
> When I mow or tend the grounds near it I keep a pair of hand pruners, a campsaw
> and a long arm welders leather glove on me to prune , trim or entwine the hedge shoots if I need to to keep them from getting too thick on the inside of my central property area without biting me.


Long arms welders glove.......great idea......I will have to remember that the next time I need to trim blackberries and multiflora!!!!


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## doodlemom (Apr 4, 2006)

I tossed one hydrangea into the edible mix for dried/fresh floral arrangements although not edible. There's a blackberries coming up to the left side and roses down along the front. This was from early fall 2012


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## Shrek (May 1, 2002)

billooo2 said:


> Long arms welders glove.......great idea......I will have to remember that the next time I need to trim blackberries and multiflora!!!!


I have learned to pick those blackberries wearing those gloves. I had them in my hip pocket one day when I went over to my mechanics shop and he asked to borrow them while doing a converter replacement when he saw them in my pocket . When he asked me why the right one was stained purple and I told him he got to laughing so hard he let his torch go out and had to re-spark it


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## tentance (Aug 16, 2012)

i planted roses under my daughter's window... she's just a tot now, but by the time she's a teenager...


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## Raeven (Oct 11, 2011)

tentance said:


> i planted roses under my daughter's window... she's just a tot now, but by the time she's a teenager...


tentance... I like how you think.  You could teach a class in Devious Parenting.

Me, I'm thinking about teaching a class in Cat Hair Macrame.


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## hoggie (Feb 11, 2007)

hawthorn and sloe tend to be the trees of choice when planting a hedgerow like that as their roots tend to go straight down rather that spreadign out and taking the nutrients you need. BUT a real hedgerow grows whatever lands in it and will end up a mixed hedge, usually of fruiting trees and birds land on the hedge and deposit the seeds. Hazel is a good hedgerow plant also, as is elder (although will take over a bit) and in some places coppiced ash is used too.


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## mickm (Jul 23, 2010)

Here in ks, hedgerows mean osage orange rows, or bois d arc trees. In fact most locals refer to them as "hedge trees". The rows were planted along roads and property boundraies for wind breaks and erosion control. Many of these hedge rows are 100+ years old, and unfortunately are being torn down at an alarming rate. Farming today is ridiculous.


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## moonwolf (Sep 20, 2004)

elkhound, 
In fact, yes. Since I have some north and west facing areas prone to stirring up more wind than I would care to endure, I have planted some time ago a hedge of siberian pear trees. In the spring and summer they are great now for keeping wind in check. 
They are also thorny and planted close together keep back some large pesty type varmints (such as bear!). As a bonus, these bush trees about 15 ft. tall now produce an abundance of 'wildlife food' in the form of small pears (bitter, but the birds and deer love them).

Also, not so much a hedgerow, but the several hundred scot's pine tree plantation now hover around 20 ft. high and are producing their own 'environment' by taking over the grassy areas and introducing good cover for variety of wildlife. Sort of 'eco planting' where one species is doing good for other species without a lot of 'gardening' effort.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Groene Pionier said:


> I have some kind of hedge (posted it before) and I don't like it at all. We dont'have a lot of space here and my garden is small (for US measurements). I am still afraid that I can't grow a lot next to the hedge because of the roots, I did some digging the other day and there were a lot of roots where I didn't expect them. I will need to build some kind of raised beds and hopefully some vegetables will grow...
> But you all have all these acres of land....you will not have the same problems


The brush roots will grow upwards into the good soil, I have seen it!

Plant your garden anyways, and use fertilizer more often than you usually would!


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

moonwolf said:


> elkhound,
> In fact, yes. Since I have some north and west facing areas prone to stirring up more wind than I would care to endure, I have planted some time ago a hedge of siberian pear trees. In the spring and summer they are great now for keeping wind in check.
> They are also thorny and planted close together keep back some large pesty type varmints (such as bear!). As a bonus, these bush trees about 15 ft. tall now produce an abundance of 'wildlife food' in the form of small pears (bitter, but the birds and deer love them).
> 
> Also, not so much a hedgerow, but the several hundred scot's pine tree plantation now hover around 20 ft. high and are producing their own 'environment' by taking over the grassy areas and introducing good cover for variety of wildlife. Sort of 'eco planting' where one species is doing good for other species without a lot of 'gardening' effort.


hello friend of mine....glad to hear from you....sure do miss all that you do up thar in them north woods....hope ya post a bit often this year.


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

TTT...to the top....somebody needed this info so i am bumping it for them to read...good luck.


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## doodlemom (Apr 4, 2006)

My favorite woodchuck trap for edible weed barriers I like to call hedgerowsound:







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Note the apple peels and cores


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

The bad thing about hedgerows is that to make a proper hedgerow for food and wood you need a wide track of land on your boarder because it not only include the trees, bramble and such, it also include a trench and a cleared area between the hedge and the pasture or crops.

Cornish hedgerows are the simplest to make and they take up little room, but they give no food.


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

Doodle do you grow Rose of Sharon? The flowers are good for eating. Very good.


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## Wanda (Dec 19, 2002)

I visit a UK farming forum a lot. One of the things that is interesting is the use of hedges. The thing that you must consider is that they are cut just like you would bush hog a pasture. They have multitudes of ''contractors'' that make a living doing this with hedge cutters on hydraulic boom arms. It would be a full time job to manage a hedge if it is very large. Look at an abandoned fence row and watch how fast it will grow in width. If you let it get to large before trimming it will be to course and lose its effectiveness.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Wanda said:


> I visit a UK farming forum a lot. One of the things that is interesting is the use of hedges. The thing that you must consider is that they are cut just like you would bush hog a pasture. They have multitudes of ''contractors'' that make a living doing this with hedge cutters on hydraulic boom arms. It would be a full time job to manage a hedge if it is very large. Look at an abandoned fence row and watch how fast it will grow in width. If you let it get to large before trimming it will be to course and lose its effectiveness.


I have some very old farming books that say how to tend to hedges by hand: there were professionals that did this but a farmer could keep his hedges dense with perhaps 40 hours of work a year.

It was a good job for winter time.


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## sustainabilly (Jun 20, 2012)

I remember a video, elk (I think) posted, that showed a guy climbing around in the field edge trees and pruning/bending them and such, to train them for a living fence. I didn't see it on this thread, though. I'm trying to do it with what I've got growing here, instead of buying plants to create it. The first step is pruning. I'm just wanting to make sure I'm not killing the stuff that I've been cutting part way through.


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

i dont remember guy climbing..because hedges are laid over from a partial base cut of tree sapling...i do remember one where the hedge was up on a earthen mound that put hedge way up over field...could it been that?not sure if i could find that again.


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## sustainabilly (Jun 20, 2012)

Now that I'm thinking about it elk, I think there was woods surrounding the field and he was showing how you can prune and bend partially cut saplings to get them growing up. It's a multi-year process. But, I remember him climbing and stretching out to prune some branches too.There might have been stone walls at the base of some of the areas he was working in. Sorry, it's not much help. I looked around on youtube some, for it. Will look more. It may have been in a video that demonstrated the way people lived in by gone days.


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## bigjon (Oct 2, 2013)

every spring i cut the hedgerows back,i want the local farmer to get in closer with his plows.every thing i cut limbs/brush goes right back into the hedges.1 nosy neighbor had the stones to ask if he could buy 1 hedgerow to knock it down-and put a driveway to his new garage!he insisted on this idea.i'm still laughing...........


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

there are living hedges and dead wood hedges and combination of the two.

when you partially cut and lay a sapling over it will send branches straight up like a tree.if there no branches on trunk of sapling laid over light stimulates the tree to send out shoots/water sprout type growth.


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

added planting of desired variety adds value too.i seen one hedge that is all hazelnut.those apple trees in old fence rows sure are a nice spot to harvest deer from late in the day.


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## sustainabilly (Jun 20, 2012)

After the pruning stage, I've got a couple of Am. hazelnuts I'm going to divide and add in bare spots. Two small hawthorn trees too. This will probably only work to keep some domestic animals in, not wild ones out. If I can locate a couple of suckers from the crab apple trees I have growing wild, I'll put them in too. I'd like to stay away from adding brambles in general, as they seem like they would require more maintenance trimming.


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

around here grow up fence rows are mostly wild cherry and locust they are invader species.locust is a legume and its a nitrogen fixer.plus locust is my favorite firewood. the one draw back about them here is poision oak grows real well...i use to try tons of raccoons in fence rows and kept the itch all the time...lol...them dogs get it all over them jumping at base of a tree and then touching them you get it all over you.

trees i would add are apple,plum,persimmon and grape vines......if only you want a hedge to block access then i would go for locust and hawthorn.be careful with wild cherry the wilted leaves kill cattle..not sure about other livestock.wild cherry is my favorite smoke wood.....except alder from west coast but thats not available here.

people say what ya do with trimming from a hedge its such small wood...in a permaculture mindset you run your rocket stove cooker on it.


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## doodlemom (Apr 4, 2006)

Siberian pea shrub is a nitrogen fixer too with edible peas grows 10-12 ft and is an invasive weed in other state so I bought some from St Lawrence Nurseries in NY. Useful and ugly. Sort of what I'm going for lol. It says you don't want to trick or treat at that ladies house.


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## Tommyice (Dec 5, 2010)

doodlemom said:


> It says you don't want to trick or treat at that ladies house.


Could've been the turnips you were giving out too  LOL


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## doodlemom (Apr 4, 2006)

City Bound said:


> Doodle do you grow Rose of Sharon? The flowers are good for eating. Very good.


Nope. Never heard of it.


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## doodlemom (Apr 4, 2006)

Tommyice said:


> Could've been the turnips you were giving out too  LOL


I was hoping that the person that reports threads would send an angry letter to that seed company for such a catalog display.


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## Wavertree (Dec 1, 2013)

A friend of mine is a Homesteader in England. Just this week, he did a blog post about his hedging efforts. He also offers some links about how to date your hedge by the types of plants growing in it.
Of course, English hedges are much older than ours, but it makes for some interesting reading.


http://freemaninpowys.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/my-life-as-hedge.html


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## Ramblin Wreck (Jun 10, 2005)

doodlemom said:


> Nope. Never heard of it.


Common in southern gardens, at least my Mom and a lot of the neighbors had them. Mom's last one is still going/growing strong.


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## sustainabilly (Jun 20, 2012)

I've been knocking around the idea of growing some hops on part of my field edge where I'm trying to grow the living hedge. Just let them grow up on a red maple. Maybe next year. There are some native plums that I have to move over there, too.


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## doodlemom (Apr 4, 2006)

Ramblin Wreck said:


> Common in southern gardens, at least my Mom and a lot of the neighbors had them. Mom's last one is still going/growing strong.


I was joking lol. Yeah I love them, but then again I love Virginia creeper too as a peach dye plant.


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## Ramblin Wreck (Jun 10, 2005)

doodlemom said:


> I was joking lol. Yeah I love them, but then again I love Virginia creeper too as a peach dye plant.


 Wull I didn't know you were joking!!!


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## SimplerTimez (Jan 20, 2008)

Also know as hibiscus syriacus. I've grown them a lot of places, but I don't know their hardiness factor. We used to pick the spent blooms and suck the nectar from the bottoms when I was little.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Hibiscus-syriacus.jpg

~ST


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