Chris at it again

[Kevtherev]

 

[Lofty1984]

That is a pee poor effort mind it looks awful, he’s still a f**king knob head though

 

[M-J-G]

To be fair that is a serious mismanagement of a hedge,

 

[pellow]

If Christ came here and saw the hedges I haven’t cut for 3 years he’d still find something for contempt

 

[farenheit]

 

[Chopsy Varmint]

He's got a point and those photos play right into his anti-farmer campaign. Like shooting fish in a barrel except he wouldn't approve of that either.

 

[mixed breed]

Don't we all have a bit of a tidy up from time to time, I trashed a stretch of overgrown stuff back, last year, it's come back well and will be a lot better next year for both wildlife and cattle shelter.
Trouble is these celeb "hero's" post these things and suddenly the general public think we're doing the same to every single hedge in the countryside.

 

[paul&mandy]

That is NOT an example of your average farm hedge!
That aside the worst hedges I've seen are a direct result of these very environmental schemes, cutting every 3yrs and only need a wet season or 2 missed after the 3yrs it soon looks a mess.

 

[Goweresque]

If tw@ts like him didn't stop hedge cutting so early in the year, farmers might leave hedges over winter and cut them in the early spring. The ground is sodden still at the end of February, unless you have a really unusually dry winter, but more often than not March dries up nicely.

To be fair that is a serious mismanagement of a hedge,

Not necessarily. The mismanagement was to not cut it regularly before, not the severe haircut its just had. You can see from the bare patch how far the hedge has been allowed to grow out, and the size of the blackthorn shows how long its been left. Faced with that sort of thing there's only one thing to do, drastic cutting back and then regular cutting of the new growth. I'd say thats someone attempting to get the hedge back into shape, not destroy it. Admittedly flails aren't the best thing for that job, a shear is the best, but even then a hedge looks awful the day after its done. I've cut far bigger hedges down to size with my excavator shear and 6 months later the average person would struggle to spot where I'd been, the regrowth is so strong.

 

[Werzle]

Birds are fed so much now by the general public on bird tables etc , all year round too, not just in winter that they will lose the art of hunter gathering berries before long. Packham turns my guts with his preaching.

 

[bobk]

Tough sh!t , Sweden is not on our free travel corridor

 

[GeorgeK]

Why would the Redwing starve though? Having flown from Scandinavia is it unable to travel a few more metres to those thick clumps of bushes and hedges in the background of the pictures?

 

[M-J-G]

If tw@ts like him didn't stop hedge cutting so early in the year, farmers might leave hedges over winter and cut them in the early spring. The ground is sodden still at the end of February, unless you have a really unusually dry winter, but more often than not March dries up nicely.



Not necessarily. The mismanagement was to not cut it regularly before, not the severe haircut its just had. You can see from the bare patch how far the hedge has been allowed to grow out, and the size of the blackthorn shows how long its been left. Faced with that sort of thing there's only one thing to do, drastic cutting back and then regular cutting of the new growth. I'd say thats someone attempting to get the hedge back into shape, not destroy it. Admittedly flails aren't the best thing for that job, a shear is the best, but even then a hedge looks awful the day after its done. I've cut far bigger hedges down to size with my excavator shear and 6 months later the average person would struggle to spot where I'd been, the regrowth is so strong.

I meant a general mismanagement causing it to end up that way, not any one area specifically.

I agree that it shouldn't have gotten to the stage where it needed to be butchered, which is down to a lack of management on someones part.

 

[Bertram]

If Christ came here and saw the hedges I haven’t cut for 3 years he’d still find something for contempt

I know he gets a lot of PR but I’m not sure Packham’s actually the Messiah yet, is he?

 

[M-J-G]

I know he gets a lot of PR but I’m not sure Packham’s actually the Messiah yet, is he?

He's his own hero

 

[Kevtherev]

It’s Willow by the looks and it was chainsaw cut after by what’s said on FB to coppicing it the flailing was to take bulk off.
Not the best example I know but these things give fuel to packham and his tribe.
I’ve invited them here off his FB page to see proper hedgerow management and farming and conservation in practice.

 

[Bury the Trash]

I know he gets a lot of PR but I’m not sure Packham’s actually the Messiah yet, is he?

but You know what Pellow means, he comes across as the sort of numb nuts who would never mention the good thing a farmer did or was doing ....one of those ' always ob jective ' types, proper bledy agitator ' as Dad used to say....

 

[Chopsy Varmint]

I know he gets a lot of PR but I’m not sure Packham’s actually the Messiah yet, is he?

No, he's a very naughty boy.

 

[GeorgeK]

The trick to pulling off a hedge massacre is to only do one side, let it thicken up then next year hit the other side. That way it never looks like a row of pencils

 

[Drago]

Is there any difference in outcome between the butchering and hedge laying? Apart from athetics?
The redwing isn't going to be that bothered along as its not a new housing estate. They will fly further up the hedge row.