I've been wanting to fence the back property in an undeveloped bottom land area and the expense and labor aren't insignificant. I've watched over the years about how it's done in rural areas where grazing etc is predominant and one thing is common - the fence lines are always overgrown in 20 years.

Thats how it was done in Europe and done a lot in early days here in America - "hedging" planted to define the property line. I see some advantages:

In flood prone areas it's highly resistant to damage and fixes itself. At worst, small transplants might get need to be filled in. It won't stop a creek bed from being an open highway but fencing that rarely works well anyway.

Fences will force animals to look for weak points, a hedge will have some anyway. Better controlled access than animals hung up in it. Same for humans - I've climbed fences at access points hunting, over time it breaks down. A hedge tends to self repair and next year its more substantial.

How many have land with hedging, and what disadvantages have you suffered from it?

Look to France. Troops had to use tanks with special tools to get through. You need to look at proper drainage and sunlight as well.

There's more to making effective, sustainable and repairable hedgerows than just interspersing some plants in a line.

Guidance on planting and managing hedgerows

management and rejuvenation

Once you establish them and work at times in hedge-laying and coppicing, among other methods, you can have a very effective barrier and microbiome.

It's not just touch it once and forget it to be its most healthy and effective.

T posts and barbed wire are the quickest and easiest….growing a hedgerow will take years, and you have to maintain it. Barbed wire just sits there day in and day out doing its thing.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Look to France. Troops had to use tanks with special tools to get through.

The hedgerows in Normandy were originally built up over 1000+ years ago by medieval farmers. So if he's just now planting hedges around his property, it's going to take a loooooong time before his property line gets to be as impenetrable as those in the French countryside.

Cut it out making me look stupid. BTW did you know German dogtags did not have their names on them?

Yep. Just their unit and roster number, plus sometimes (but not always) their blood type.

Well, at least during WW2... During WW1, German identity discs also included their name, birthdate, and hometown.

Figured you would know. I was watching a video on reburying remains of German soldiers. Their numbering system was a real mess and made ID difficult. They found one guy still alive at 104 and his dog tag was buried with someone else in the south of France. Germans known for precision were not very precise in that department. They at least made diagrams of where they were buried.

Getting back to the original question about hedgerows...much depends on the plant species chosen for the job. Many will grow quickly enough to be time-consuming to maintain, needing yearly, or more frequent pruning, weeding, etc. The box plant was popular in Europe because it is a trim, slow-growing evergreen of reasonably attractive appearance, and can be trained into a dense well-behaved row. It does not propagate through suckers or other aggressive means. It is less widely used in the US. Because of its slow growth, the starter plants are usually much more expensive than the common alternatives (Japanese Holly, Ligustrum, Yew, Euonymous, etc.) A boxwood hedge will take many years (decades) to form an effective barrier, while a fence will go up in a day (and be much cheaper to boot).

Given the situation as described in the OP, I'd probably choose to install split rail fencing using pressure treated lumber, and clad with wire fence fabric. I know my fences require much less effort to maintain than my hedges, and are a far more effective barrier. OTOH, my fences are in shaded areas and not subject to grass and weed invasion which might change my opinion of the maintenance requirement.

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now
It's just a spring clean for the May queen