'Hedgriculture'

[Farmersdaughter]

Wondering if this idea would be a good way to harvest biomass for composting. I have been thinking about using our conventional hedges as a carbon source to help compost muck from farm, but not worked out best way to harvest yet.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Wondering if this idea would be a good way to harvest biomass for composting. I have been thinking about using our conventional hedges as a carbon source to help compost muck from farm, but not worked out best way to harvest yet.

I make charcoal from hedge trimmings and put that in the compost/FYM heap.
Just cuts down on how much material you have to move, and the time factor..
If you climb up on the pile of branches and light a fire on top, then it chars it rather than burns it to ash, and you get the benefits of the carbon instead of the atmosphere.

 

[DrWazzock]

Wondering if this idea would be a good way to harvest biomass for composting. I have been thinking about using our conventional hedges as a carbon source to help compost muck from farm, but not worked out best way to harvest yet.

We used to cut hedges with a finger bar cutter then raked up by hand loading onto trailers. Then we burned them. I suppose we could have baled the trimmings as they weren't very woody. It was a much better system, (gathering up long trimmings) as it meant few thorns left in the ground to get in feet and tyres. The machines nowadays that smash up the trimmings are a nightmare in this respect.

 

[Bury the Trash]

We used to cut hedges with a finger bar cutter then raked up by hand loading onto trailers. Then we burned them. I suppose we could have baled the trimmings as they weren't very woody. It was a much better system, (gathering up long trimmings) as it meant few thorns left in the ground to get in feet and tyres. The machines nowadays that smash up the trimmings are a nightmare in this respect.

good for the birds ? thorn is native but crap ir. ....its not stockproof as it gets eaten ....and goes open in the bottom ...should .put it in room 101 imo .

withy might be alright for bm .. but soddin roots would be a nightmare

 

[DrWazzock]

good for the birds ? thorn is native but crap ir. ....its not stockproof as it gets eaten ....and goes open in the bottom ...should .put it in room 101 imo .

withy might be alright for bm .. but soddin roots would be a nightmare

I detest thorn but it's prevalent here. Particularly blackthorn which spreads via roots and suckers. Terrible stuff.

 

[New Puritan]

This sounds like what Martin Wolfe does at Wakelyns, although perhaps that's more 'conventional' agroforestry. I really like the idea, and what @BigBarl says about subsoiling around the roots makes sense to stop them encroaching into the field. I know someone who got a grant off the Woodland Trust to put trees in along their bug banks. If I wasn't a tenant and had a bit more free reign I'd give it a go.

 

[Still Farming]

Theres your cash crop:
"Pick-your-own blackberries @£3 per Kg" !!!

O no that's the public's "Right"to pick them where they want for free ???
You pick something in their garden though !!!

 

[BigBarl]

This sounds like what Martin Wolfe does at Wakelyns, although perhaps that's more 'conventional' agroforestry. I really like the idea, and what @BigBarl says about subsoiling around the roots makes sense to stop them encroaching into the field. I know someone who got a grant off the Woodland Trust to put trees in along their bug banks. If I wasn't a tenant and had a bit more free reign I'd give it a go.

If you havent read it then Stephen briggs' Nuffield report on agroforestry is excellent. He is a tennant farmer and has really made agroforestry work using apple as a cash crop. I started the ball rolling with the woodland trust but they all support native species not fruit that I wanted to use in my proposed system.

 

[Palms]

Have thought up a new environmentally friendly farming system ,similar to Agroforestry but using hedges instead of trees.
Plant lines of hedges in arable fields parallel to the tramlines and single or multiple tramline widths apart.
.........

Silvopasture I think is the name for this type of agroforestry.

 

[Palms]

Nice picture here http://www.centerforagroforestry.org/practices/sp.php

 

[Blaithin]

It’s a fairly popular concept here. Although nobody trims them like there, they’re just wild bush lines. Main goal is to act as wind breaks but also catch snow in drifts to help improve soil moisture levels.

The most popular variety used is caragana which are a legume so that probably has a beneficial affect on local soil nitrogen levels as well. Although personally I’m a fan of the big stretches of lilacs

Problem farmers are running into now though is the shelter belt programs were really pushed and implemented 20-30 years ago. Equipment size has drastically increased since then so now a lot of the treelines are being pulled out because the don’t have sufficient room for the drills and cultivators. Sad to watch them get ripped up so much but hopefully a lot get replaced down the road.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

It’s a fairly popular concept here. Although nobody trims them like there, they’re just wild bush lines. Main goal is to act as wind breaks but also catch snow in drifts to help improve soil moisture levels.

The most popular variety used is caragana which are a legume so that probably has a beneficial affect on local soil nitrogen levels as well. Although personally I’m a fan of the big stretches of lilacs

Problem farmers are running into now though is the shelter belt programs were really pushed and implemented 20-30 years ago. Equipment size has drastically increased since then so now a lot of the treelines are being pulled out because the don’t have sufficient room for the drills and cultivators. Sad to watch them get ripped up so much but hopefully a lot get replaced down the road.

Pretty common practice over here too, for shelter, firewood and shelter
The main thing that folk got wrong were the tree variety of choice, ususally; but the results are good.
That's the problem with farmers (here we go) is that total lack of imagination.
"the neighbour is planting pine, so shall I"
never mind that a deciduous tree has much advantage over a pine tree, or something that self prunes, or is stockfood on a stick...
...but an excellent concept if you get things right IMO

 

[Blaithin]

I think the shelter belt program here helped fairly well in covering deciduous and coniferous. Decids grow faster, conifs live longer, so they planted both! Although yes, the variety about ends there. It’s the same four kinds used everywhere But at least the belts are usually in at least three layers.

Bush
Deciduous
Coniferous

Alas... the decids are all hitting the end of their lives at the same time (now), so this years wind storms have been particularly damaging.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Over here it is mainly Macrocarpa, Pinus Radiata, Eucalyptus (nitens is very popular as a firewood source) or poplar.
Very little in the way of imagination, as stock don't even touch the first 3, but love many other species (which take up the same amount of room)

and flax is a popular choice to shelter the trees when young, makes chainsaw work a right PITA too, as the flax is grabbed by the chain and plugs it all up.
Great for outdoor lambing shelter, however.
My little plan, as detailed elsewhere, is to grow heaps of little sheltered corners here and there, with all-edible species and herbs (for those times when nature shows her sense of humour) and simply for aesthetic appeal.
We get enough weather extremes this far south to have hardy livestock that carry on carrying on, large shelterbelts tend to create stock camps and grow barleygrass.