A Hedge Morning at West Beckham Old Allotments
Over the years, there has been a great deal of hedge work at West Beckham Old Allotments (WBOA) – planting, maintaining, trimming, Ivy removing, lopping – so today, the six of us who joined Val on yet another fine, sunny morning, were treated to a hedge tour and talk by Val. We walked around the perimeter of the site, with Val giving us a little history of the Trust’s planting and some interesting facts about some of the trees and hedge plants.
So we now know that the Elder is allelopathic – ‘allelopathy’ is a biological phenomenon where a plant releases biochemicals (allelochemicals) into the surrounding environment to influence the growth, survival, and reproduction of other nearby plants, or so Mr AI tells me. Apparently, the Common Elder produces compounds in its leaves, roots, and bark and when leaves fall and decompose, or when rain washes over the canopy, these chemicals leach into the topsoil. This process actively inhibits the germination and growth of competing vegetation directly underneath or immediately surrounding the Elder tree. It is one of the reasons why Elders are highly effective, fast-growing, and dominant colonizers in hedgerows and woodlands. We discussed whether we should remove the three or four Elders in our hedgerows or whether, even if we did this, the damage to the soil would already have been done.
We also learned that only the female Holly has berries – Holly trees are dioecious, meaning that male and female flowers occur on different trees. Val also pointed out that the famous prickly leaves are only prickly nearer to the ground: they are smooth higher up, where less protection from nibbling beasts is needed.
After our tour, we set to removing more Ivy from some of the Hawthorns on the east side of the site – not cutting the Ivy near its base as we had done in the past, but lopping branches off near the top, to prevent the Ivy’s weight from toppling the aging Hawthorns – as had recently happened. We used the cut limbs to gap up some of the holes in the east side hedgerow. Some of us also got to work with removing one of the Elder shrubs on site, in an effort to reduce disruption to the hedge around it.
After coffee, we continued with Ivy removal, as volunteer Simon bravely offered to head up the ladder to chop down some very hard-to-reach Ivy. It was a rare occasion where the hard hats had to come out!
Our next Thursday work party is in Sustead on November 5th. However, there will be a nestbox cleaning and repairing work party on Saturday October 24th and a tree nursery work party on Saturday October 31st.
Peter Maingay
October 15th 2026
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