Hedgerow: First Year — July Update

At the beginning of this growing season (late April, early May in Quebec, Canada), I set about turning a sort of waste area in a ditch by my house into a hedgerow and an eco-buffer / wildlife corridor as part of my larger effort at what I call “wild cultivation.” You can read all about the hedgerow part of this project here, and the ideas behind it (such as encouraging biodiversity & carbon capture, and creating proof of concept for scaling these techniques up).

Biodiversity Farming: Amateur Hedge Laying in Canada

The present article is a follow-up to that one, with photos of the hedgerow growing out over the course of the first part of the season. Photos below taken on 12 July 2022.

Photos

Now that plants have leafed out considerably, we end up with some nice spots in the hedgerow that feel very protected and magical. Sort of a series of inter-linked secret gardens — and that’s only the ones that I have access to. Never mind the secret inner world inside the hedge where the birds and probably mice get to do their thing. (By the way, I’ve noted an uptick in small falcons this year, which I’ve tentatively identified as…