Why a wildlife hedge earns its keep on the coast

On a smallholding within earshot of the sea, shelter is not a luxury. Salt-laden gales scorch leaves, strip blossom from fruit trees, snap tender shoots and dry the soil out faster than you would credit. A hedge does several jobs at once: it slows the wind, holds the soil, gives birds somewhere to nest, and hands you a harvest of sloes, haws and berries into the bargain.

The trick is not to build a solid wall of vegetation. A dense, semi-permeable hedge filters the wind and lifts it over the top, whereas a solid barrier simply dumps a turbulent eddy on the leeward side, which is worse than no shelter at all. You want something with a bit of porosity, a thick base and thorns. That combination also happens to be exactly what small birds are looking for.

Choose natives that shrug off salt spray

Coastal plants have had centuries to work out what survives. Stick to our native hedging species and you will spend far less time replacing casualties. The backbone of a seaside hedge should be:

• Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) — the workhorse of British hedgerows. Thorny, dense, unfussy about soil, and tolerant of salt-laden wind. Its haws feed redwings and fieldfares well into winter.
• Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) — early frothy blossom for pollinators, sloe berries for gin and for thrushes, and a suckering habit that knits a hedge together. Plant it in the middle of the mix where it can spread.
• Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) — the coastal specialist, with silvery foliage that shrugs off spray and nitrogen-fixing roots that will improve poor sandy ground. Its orange berries are exceptionally high in vitamin C and are stripped by wintering birds.
• Grey willow, wild rose, elder, gorse and bramble — as supporting players. Bramble in particular is one of the best nesting plants we have, so leave a patch.

Bear in mind that sea buckthorn is either male or female, so you need at least one male among every five or six plants if you want berries. It also suckers enthusiastically, so site it on the seaward edge with a mowing strip behind, or you will be pulling it out of the vegetable beds. Avoid evergreens such as laurel or privet in the front line: their leaves scorch badly and they offer little for wildlife.

Plan the line before you break ground

Spend a fortnight just watching the weather. Note which direction the worst wind arrives from — for most of the UK coast it is south-westerly, but headlands and estuaries have their own ideas. Set the hedge two to three metres inside your boundary so there is room to cut it, and think about its final height: a six-metre shelterbelt of willow will cast a long shadow over a small plot in winter.

Order bare-root transplants between November and March, and get them in the ground within a few days of arrival, keeping the roots wrapped and damp meanwhile.

Planting day, and the two summers that follow

Competition from grass and weeds is the single biggest killer of new hedging, so give the plants the upper hand from the start:

• Clear a strip a metre wide, removing perennial weeds completely rather than just topping them.
• Fork over compacted ground and work in well-rotted compost, garden compost or seaweed. No fertiliser needed beyond that.
• Plant in a double, staggered row about 40cm apart, roughly six plants per metre. Set them to the same depth they were grown at, firm gently and water in.
• Mulch 5–8cm deep with bark or straw, but keep it clear of the stems.
• Fit spiral guards against rabbits and, on exposed sites, a mesh guard to reduce spray damage. Water through the first two dry spells; a struggling hedge never recovers its vigour.

Formative cutting, or how to get a dense base

Do not let new hedging grow away unchecked and then flail it back hard. The aim in the first four or five years is a thick, bushy base right down to the ground, because that is where the nests and the shelter are. Trim the leader lightly each winter to encourage side shoots, and cut the sides back to a broad A-shape so light reaches the bottom.

Once established, cut in late winter, before the birds nest. Cutting every year on a three-year rotation — one section each year — means there is always some tall, berry-bearing growth standing over winter and some undisturbed cover for nesting. Never trim the whole hedge to the same height at the same time; a mix of heights and ages is what makes it valuable.

Gap up any losses each winter, and top up the mulch. A coastal hedge takes a few years longer to knit together than an inland one, but once it does, it will shelter your whole holding, feed your birds and give you a sloe harvest worth waiting for.