Dead …?

Day 84 #365 DaysWild

When is a dead hedge not dead? When it’s alive!

Now ready for tenants…

We get quite a lot of sticks and branches as we do maintenance work in the garden. Our perennials produce a small mountain of woody stems as we tidy away the growth from the year. And our meadows and lawn generate large quantities of material.

Shredding takes a lot of time.

Burning produces a lot of smoke.

So we use all of this valuable ‘waste’ to make a ‘lasagne’ for wildlife.

We layer up a ‘hedge’ of dead material: a dead hedge. 

A layer of branches and sticks..

Twigs and sticks and branches then grass and hay, then perennial material then twigs and sticks and branches again and do on.

And voila!! A luxurious warm, thatched home for invertebrates, small mammals, amphibians, slow worms and birds.

Over time it all rots down so new layers are added.

What’s not to like?