richardbenson.com

THE MOST TAKEN-FOR-GRANTED element of our landscape must be the hedgerow; how many of us look at classic British scenery such as this and really notice the miles of hedges dividing up the fields into the familiar patchwork patterns we know and love? And yet they are worthy of attention, being havens for wildlife, and differing in vegetation and style from region to region. The benefits of them to farmers are that they renew themselves naturally- although they also have to be trimmed - and that they are pretty effective when it comes to ensuring animals stay in their fields. Farmers, encouraged by governments since the Second World War, have pulled up many hedges to make bigger fields. However, new laws and grants are helping to change that, with farmers now being paid to plant new ones. If you look out as you drive around the British countryside, you will see many gaps in hedges that have been replanted with young shrubs•