Create Benjeshecke ∗ The big guide from A to Z

Create Benje hedge

the benje hedge is an enrichment for every natural garden. Easy to set up, ecologically valuable and equipped with convincing advantages, the hedge can be integrated into any garden as a living wall. Important questions about the Benjeshecke for the hobby garden are given a compact, comprehensible answer below:

What is a Benje hedge?

In the 1980s, the brothers Hermann and Heinrich Benjes developed an ingenious concept for the ecologically sensible recycling of clippings. With their brilliant ideas, the nature lovers gave the well-known deadwood hedges a new shine. The following definition sums up the term Benjeshecke:

• definition: Benjeshecke is a loose, linear layer of shrub cuttings between wooden stakes as a natural habitat for plants, insects, birds and small mammals.

What are the advantages of a Benjes hedge?

The success story of the Benjeshecke is based on a wide range of convincing advantages:

• Recycling on site: Pruning trees in the garden back into the cycle of nature.
• privacy screen: Repel prying eyes from property, patio, patio, compost heap, garbage cans.
• windbreak: Protect wind-exposed locations from draughts, such as barbecue areas, swimming ponds, garden saunas.
• habitat: Shelter, shelter, food source and rearing station for animals and insects.
• Cost savings: Inexpensive setting up a hedge instead of investing in expensive shrubs.
• flexibility: Suitable for any size garden from a spacious park to a small front yard.

Last but not least, a Benjes hedge is pleasing easy-care. Only when the clippings sag down do you top up with deadwood. If companion plants grow too profusely, pruning will fix the problem.

Benjeshecke - Clippings become a habitat for beneficial insects

Which location is suitable?

Reserve a sunny to semi-shady place with normal to lean garden soil for your Benjes hedge. If the soil at the site is too nutrient-rich or too moist, we recommend adding sand. Otherwise, dominant wild herbs settle, such as stinging nettles or Pokeweed.

Is a permit required?

There is no general answer to this question. In principle, all structural systems are subject to the building regulations and are therefore subject to approval. This also includes enclosures made of living hedges, such as a Benjes hedge. Because the building regulations in Germany are a matter for the federal states, different regulations apply in each federal state. It is therefore strongly recommended to informally inquire with the local building authority before starting construction. Furthermore, the lower nature conservation authority will be happy to provide you with information as to whether a deadwood hedge is subject to approval in your region.

Which animals find shelter in a Benje hedge?

If dead wood is illuminated by the sun, life pulsates in it. In the cold season offers a deadwood hedge numerous animals a cozy winter quarters. Look forward to these animals visiting your Benjeshecke:

• Insects of all kinds, such as brimstone butterflies, lacewings, wild bees, bumblebees, ladybugs or even rare ones rhino beetle.
• Amphibians: toads, frogs, lizards, salamanders, amphibians
• Birds: blackbirds, robins, wrens, sparrows, tits and other song artists
• Small mammals: hedgehogs, squirrel, dormice, dormice and bats.

If you offer this colorful crowd a place of retreat with a Benjes hedge, you no longer need to worry about pests in the garden.

How do you properly plant a Benjes hedge?

Spring is the best time to plant a Benjes hedge. At this time of year, the clippings from trees and shrubs from this year's pruning pile up. You will also need posts with a diameter of around 5 cm, a sledgehammer, a squared timber to help you drive it in, marking cord, a folding rule and a ladder. How to build a Benjes deadwood hedge correctly:

1. Measure the length of the hedge
2. Stretch out the marking cord for 2 parallel rows of posts
3. Width optionally 50 cm to 200 cm
4. sharpen stakes
5. Lay out posts at a distance of 60 cm to 100 cm along the marking cord
6. Drive each post at least 30 cm into the ground with a sledgehammer and squared timber
7. Hedge height at your own discretion
8. Fill the hedge frame with prunings

Start with thick branches that get thinner as you go up. This order is very convenient for hedgehogs and birds that want to settle under the Benje hedge or build their nests in the loose weave. Cut off any branches sticking out of the mold.

digression

Note the limit distance

Plant Benje hedge

Over time, the Benjeshecke transforms itself into a source of life. While the clippings collapse, wind and animals carry plant seeds into the hedge. The seeds germinate, grow and green the hedge with regional perennials. You can speed up this process by selectively planting the deadwood hedge. The focus is on flowering food plants that beneficial garden creatures cannot resist.

Inviting greening of Benjeshecke – tips

Make your choice carefully, because not every plant is advantageous for greening a deadwood hedge. Native wild plants that thrive naturally in your region are well suited. Highly recommended are flowers with single, single flowers that provide plenty of pollen and nectar for the hungry wild bees, parasitic wasps,(€33.00 at Amazon*) butterflies and other beneficial insects. So that birds Hedgehog or squirrels do not go empty handed, wild fruit bushes should not be missing. Be inspired by the following selection:

When you plant a Benjes hedge is your decision. The easiest way is to sow wildflower seeds before piling up the clippings. In a finished deadwood hedge, plant early perennials in the gaps that have formed.

Plant strips of wildflowers in front of the Benje hedge

In the early stages, the Benjeshecke is more of a wall of scrub than a decorative design element. With a creative trick you can give a freshly laid deadwood hedge a representative appearance. You can do this by planting a strip of tall-growing wild perennials on both sides of the hedge. This selection of varieties is in perfect harmony with your Benjeshecke:

• Elecampane (Inula helenium) with yellow ray flowers from June to September.
• japan autumnanemone (Anemone japonica 'Whirlwind') with bright white cup-shaped flowers from August to October.
• Mullein (Verbascum 'Pink Pixi') with purple-pink candle flowers from June to August.
• Bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis) with deep pink heart flowers and white teardrop process from May to June.

In the shadow cast by a man-high Benje hedge, tall goat's beard (Aruncus dioicus) feels at home with its fluffy flowers. For colorful floral decorations, put the shade-blooming ones in front of it splendor pier (astilbe thunbergii 'ostrich feather') to the side.

FAQ

Can you create a Benjes hedge at the edge of the field?

As early as the Middle Ages, deadwood hedges shaped the landscape of rural regions as a windbreak at the edge of fields. However, terms such as building regulations, enclosure regulations or building plans were still unknown at the time. Today it is advisable to ask the municipality, the nature conservation authority or the building authority in advance whether you can plant a Benjes hedge at the edge of the field.

Is the Benjes hedge suitable for an allotment garden?

You can create a Benjes hedge in any size you want. Simply measure the available space in your allotment garden and adjust the dimensions of the dead wood corner accordingly. In the small format, a width of 50 centimeters or more is recommended, with a height of 100 cm up to chest height.

Which clippings are not allowed in the Benjeshecke?

Not suitable for a Benje hedge is shrub pruning from trees that happily sprout again from cut shoots, such as blackberries. In the vicinity of nature reserves, the cuttings of shrubs that carry harmful organisms with them, such as vines with phylloxera infestation or boxwood with box tree moths, are of concern. Such neozoa have no natural enemies in our latitudes and can cause fatal damage in biotopes.

We don't have enough pruning for the Benjes hedge. What to do?

If there is not enough clippings, contact the local road maintenance department or a large gardening company. These places have to deal with mountains of dead wood in spring and autumn and are grateful for a buyer. If the forestry office allows it, you will also find what you are looking for in the forest when looking for fallen branches or broken wood to fill your Benjes hedge.

How can I beautify a Benjes hedge?

Put brightly painted flower pots upside down on the posts of the hedge frame. If you fill each pot with wood shavings, beetles will be happy about the cozy shelter. Integrate a self-built hedgehog house into the hedge as a picturesque eye-catcher. Authentic accessories are rustic planters, such as disused wheelbarrows or old wooden tubs, which you plant lavishly with wildflowers.

Does the Benjeshecke have disadvantages?

The main disadvantage of a Benjes hedge is that clippings from certain types of wood can sprout and proliferate like the branches of a blackberry. It is to be lamented that highly competitive, invasive weeds colonize the nutrient-rich site, which suppresses the growth of wild fruit trees. Unless you green a deadwood hedge in a targeted manner, it will take 30 years for near-natural, species-rich vegetation to emerge.