{"id":1651734,"date":"2013-05-15T05:46:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-15T04:46:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-12-15T18:33:29","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T18:33:29","slug":"the-nr35-dead-hedgers-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/stories\/2013-05-15\/the-nr35-dead-hedgers-society\/","title":{"rendered":"The NR35 Dead-Hedgers Society"},"content":{"rendered":"
NOTE: Images in this archived article have been removed.<\/div>\n

\"Image<\/a>It just so happened that the five of us who turned up at Richard’s on Wednesday morning in Bungay to learn how to do dead-hedging with Paul were all over 50, and so the ad hoc name we came up with for that morning’s grouping was the NR35 Dead-Hedgers Society – the Over 50s Contingent!<\/p>\n

However, anyone of any age was welcome to join the new Transition social enterprise, NR35<\/a> (NR = Natural Resources and NR35 is the local postcode) practical dead-hedge laying session.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>This involved laying out and hammering in stakes staggered along a boundary of about twenty-five feet, and then placing and roughly weaving in branches and twigs from recently coppiced trees between the stakes. Making a hedge in this way would not only provide Richard with a decent boundary, but create a refuge for wildlife. Birds like wrens will often build their nests in dead hedges. Tony found an old nest rather larger than a wren’s, which we placed in the hedge once we’d finished.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

This was the first time dead-hedging for all of us except Paul, who is a professional tree surgeon, and who taught us with consummate calm and patience. I asked everyone how it had been for them:<\/p>\n

Cathy: <\/b>Well, it uses up an amazing amount of material you might think would be difficult to dispose of. And it’s delightful doing it with others.<\/p>\n

\nNick:<\/b> It’s hard work and it makes you sweat, but I’m surprised how easily we managed to get a good end-product (the hedge), in  the space of 2 hours. And it’s brilliant we can go away and do it ourselves now.
\n\"Image<\/a>
\n<\/b> Tony:<\/b> Working as a team is really good fun. And it’s satisfying to start off with all this dead material and end up with a hedge.<\/p>\n

I asked Paul<\/b> how he found us as a group to teach: ”It’s been really satisfying. Everyone’s been very receptive and quick to learn the skills and techniques. The results speak for themselves: we have a very reasonable dead-hedge. I’ve seen a lot worse.”<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>Me: <\/b>I found the whole morning instructive and really good fun. I noticed that being physically engaged in building the dead hedge you got into a kind of rhythm with everyone- I would find my hands often knew just what to do. It would have taken forever to do it from a book.<\/p>\n

Part of dead-hedging is jumping up and down on top of the laid branches when they’re at a certain height. Cathy and I held hands and pogo-ed up and down together. Later, I realised that over the years I’ve frequently bounced up and down at our events!<\/a><\/p>\n

Just because you’re over 50 doesn’t mean you’ve got no bounce! Or that you can’t learn a new practical skill in the course of a morning in a congenial atmosphere with fellow reskilling dead-hedgers.<\/p>\n

\"Image
\nFor more information on Sustainable Bungay’s NR35 Natural Resources group, see here<\/a>.
\nAll images by Mark Watson: Hammering in the staggered stakes; building the hedge from the bottom up; bird’s nest; receptive and quick to learn; the finished dead-hedge; bouncing up and down on the hedge<\/i><\/p>\n

Originally posted on Sustainable Bungay’s website<\/a> 10th May 2013<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It just so happened that the five of us who turned up at Richard’s on Wednesday morning in Bungay to learn how to do dead-hedging with Paul were all over 50, and so the ad hoc name we came up with for that morning’s grouping was the NR35 Dead-Hedgers Society – the Over 50s Contingent!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19493,"featured_media":3484439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-images-removed.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79718],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1651734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19493"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1651734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3484439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1651734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1651734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1651734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}