Upcycling: How clippings can be turned into a windbreak and new habitat
🍁🍃Early fall is the time for hedge trimming. A lot of clippings accumulate in our garden. Instead of chopping it up or taking it away, we can use it to create a privacy and windbreak. A Benjes hedge. 🍃✨
💕The thick branches serve as posts. If we don't have any, we can also use normal wooden garden posts. Untreated ones please. These are sharpened with a hoe and driven into the ground in two rows, with the posts in the front row offset from the back row. In our garden, the back row consists of the garden fence.
👉The space in between is now filled with the branches, which are placed crosswise between the posts. Mix thicker and thinner ones together. In this way, you pile up all your clippings and fill the space in between.
🐦The wrens use our Benjes hedge as a hiding place and breeding ground. Numerous insects cavort around the deadwood. In the meantime, clematis and hops are already growing on the hedge. We replenish the hedge every year, as the older layers tend to collapse over time.
💕😍Try it out! Have fun with it!
