If There's a Bustle in Your Hedgerow

Agriculture in Great Britain is long established and the farmers seem to not have fallen for all the gimmicks that the American farmers have fallen for over the years.  American farmers did away with hedgerows early in the last century to maximize their yields figuring that hedgerows were a waste of land.  This is what caused the Dust Bowl.  Without breaks in the fields all it took was some dry soil and wind storms to suck all the product soil off of their lands.

You don't see many fences in England and if you do see one it's more of a temporary thing, or something that bridges a gap between stone walls and hedgerows  Hedgerows and walls have safely keep things in or out for a very long time. They are the resting spots for the land and a place where beneficial animals and pollinating insects live.

The rule of thumb when judging how old a hedgerow is by counting the number of plant species in the row.  For each species you can safely add a hundred years to the row.  So if you find only two plants species, the row is two-hundred years old; six species would make it 600 years old, which isn't uncommon.

By the way, if there is a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed.  It just means that there are some critters making noise in there.