It will provide food, protection from predators, nesting sites and shelter from the elements for birds, bees, frogs and other creatures, which will in turn feast on damaging insects, slugs and weed seeds. Ideally, a hedgerow is a mix of deciduous and evergreen natives and non-natives of various sizes that, combined, will contribute texture, shape, contrast and colour to the overall garden scheme. If visions of butterflies drifting, bees humming, and songbirds bursting forth with notes of joy are guiding your garden plans, a mixed hedgerow will deliver all this and more, all the while freeing you from the rigid pruning schedules required to keep those conifer soldiers in perfect formation.Ī mixed hedgerow is simply an assortment of shrubs or small trees planted relatively close together to form a row, which may be straight or curved, and, like an evergreen hedge, may provide privacy, wind protection, delineation of the property boundary, or even separation of one’s garden into “rooms”. High maintenance, susceptible to disease and damage and sometimes dark and foreboding, they don’t contribute much more to the garden than would a green painted fence. Most modern hedges consist of dense rows of uniform shrubs, shaped and sheared into a smooth, uninterrupted form.
![hedge plants hedge plants](https://www.thespruce.com/thmb/hHBf7USgeFZEFlepDvBbGmi0TDs=/2120x1415/filters:fill(auto,1)/boxwood-bushes-round-shape-formal-park-493238552-8e356af735d74402bee24b8b7b25fe2e.jpg)
Over the centuries loosely piled brush, stacked rocks, iron railings and rows of shrubs have been used to keep livestock safe and to clearly mark the boundaries of personal property. Hedges, in one form or another, have existed since our ancestors gave up their foraging life style and settled down in permanent residences.