Open Land Hedgerows

A hedgerow is the line of vegetation that grows between wood and meadow. Normally spanning between four and eight meters wide, these edges contain a jumble of trees, bushes, fungi, and plants. Some hedgerows are open and bright, while others are dark and less accessible. Within a hedgerow, you can find everything from berries and fruits to nuts, mushrooms, and wild herbs.

A hedgerow is composed of a core of tall trees surrounded by bushes and smaller trees, which are in turn encircled by clusters of low-lying vegetation and mushrooms. The degrees of sunlight and wind present determine whether a hedgerow is densely packed or more sparsely populated; each variable additionally results in different varieties and abundances of plants.

Dense hedgerows

Shade generated by core trees in a dense hedgerow results in a floor of dead branches, bare soil, a few mushrooms, and a handful of herbs. Bushes and low-growing trees that need more light gather around the core’s edges, but most wild herbs and mushrooms cling to the borders of hedgerows as they seek the proper balance of sunlight and shelter.

Open hedgerows

In more open hedgerows where tall trees don't steal all of the sunlight, bushes and small trees grow thrive, and herbs and shrubs bushes intermingle between them to form a thick and verdant undergrowth. If a hedgerow is too open, however, unimpeded wind makes it difficult for any but the hardiest plants to survive. While the sunlight in an open hedgerow may be bountiful, plants must still compete for shelter from the gusts.

Coast or countryside

Many hedgerows are near the coast and are shaped by salt water and strong winds. Vegetation in these hedgerows has to withstand thick fog that rolls in from the sea; seaside plants such as blackthorn, rosehips, and sea buckthorn are often the most resilient. Further inland, hedgerows are more heavily forested. There, you will find elder, oak, wild apple, and cherry trees together with blackberry and raspberry bushes. Herbs such as ground ivy, garlic mustard, and white dead nettles comprise the undergrowth.

As the seasons progress, you'll often have to penetrate deeper into the hedgerow to find edible plants. Start in the spring by picking herbs and mushrooms on the border. Over the course of the summer, move inward and pick from bushes filling with fruit. Enter the hedgerow's heart in fall to forage from the tallest bushes and trees.

Spring

In early spring, you can pick bulbous plants such as ramson and sand leek around the bushes. By March, violets and meadowsweet sprout in the sunniest spots. Early April brings rowan leaves, still unfurled, to the hedgerow; white dead nettles, yarrow, and garlic mustard appear later in the month. By May, Japanese knotweed is doing its best to conquer space, St. George's mushrooms pop up in choice locations, and sorrel and elder blossom, filling much of the hedgerow with bloom and sweet scent.

Summer

Through much of the summer, you'll still find herbs and edible flowers on the outskirts of the hedgerow. In coastal hedgerows, you can pick rose petals and, later in the season, ripe rosehips . On the borders of dense inland edges, you'll find raspberries and wild strawberries. More open regions offer additional berries near the core. Deeper still, wide thickets of blackberry bushes cluster along decaying trees; these trunks also provide habitat for dryad's saddle.

Late summer, fall, and winter

You can pick stinging nettles and other hardy plants all season, but once late summer arrives, it's time to focus on the trees and large bushes deepest in the hedgerow. Keep an eye out for ripe wild cherries, the first real treasures of fall, as well as rowan berries, elderberries, hazelnuts, wild apples, and pears. In coastal hedgerows, you can find large bushes of sea buckthorn throughout autumn. Later, you can pick winter mushrooms off of dead trees.