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Ozark Lady
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Living Fences

Some of you may remember that I asked about Hedge rows?

When I was a child, I lived on a dairy farm. We had regular wire fences, but we also had a hedge of Osage Orange (hedge apples) growing right in the fencerow.

This article was posted in another forum. It is fantastic, I have seen hedgerows, but what the author does with his hedgerow is simply fascinating.

And it could be done with my locust! Ahah! I could use the locust for many functions!

You could keep deer out of your garden and feed them too!

Come on, go look at the ingeniousness of this author:
https://www.motherearthnews.com/modern-homesteading/living-fences-z10m0sto.aspx

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Interestingly enough, a buddy and I were talking about this last week. He plans to plant a fence at their home in the future.

Hispoptart
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wow that is some interesting reading. Seeing as though we are looking into some homesteading property, this might be something to look into doing.

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rainbowgardener
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In Costa Rica, where I stayed for a couple months, living fences are everywhere, but with an exotic tropical twist: They cut tree branches (I'm sure it makes a difference what kind of tree, but I never found out what they were), trim them up and stick them in the ground for fence posts, string a couple rows of wire along them. The branches then take root and grow and become a living fence. You can tell how long the fence has been there by how far along it is in development from a fence post/stick to a full grown tree. You can see the history of the tree, because all the branches start from one point, which used to be the top of the stick. I thought it was so cool...

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Lifestyle Lift Journey
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Fascinating! Living fences are! I think it's a part of what's called permaculture, my dream is to build a hobby farm with the concept of permaculture. Thanks for the link, Ozark Lady.

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soil
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love the info on osage orange!
Last edited by soil on Thu Oct 07, 2010 11:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

garden5
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Great article you found, OL. Thanks for posting it.

RBG, great story about how they make fences in the tropics. I guess the weather in mild enough there, year-round, for the branch to be able to root and survive. Though, I'm sure variety plays a role here, as well.

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farmerlon
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If I know my Osage Orange or "Bodark" like I think I do, some folks may not realize that it has a lot of thorns or spikes on the tree. I had read the Mother Earth article in the magazine, and I don't think they made that point clear. (the article was excellent overall)

The thorns could certainly be a plus when used as a "barrier" fence.
Just know in advance that Osage Orange can be "mean". :shock:

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applestar
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Same with the Golden Honey Locust. The cultivated variety sold for landscaping is thornless -- I think they're grafted. But waterspouts from the roots and (I've heard) seedlings develop WICKED thorns as they mature -- long double SPIKES with a pair of smaller thorns at the base. They look so ferocious it's almost unreal. :shock:

I'm sort of growing hedge rows, but mine is not plant material alone. One is along a split rail fence where ages ago my MIL brought a whole bunch of Rose of Sharon and suggested we plant them all along the fence. It does help with privacy so I've tried weaving the branches and allowing Smilax/Greenbriar with their thorny vines to climb through them for extra security. The other is a 16ft row of more Rose of Sharon that I'd planted as privacy barrier before we installed our 5 foot picket fence.

I'm in the process of replacing the 16 ft row with native shrub hedge row. I'm planting the new plant material, and as they become established, cut down and suppress the RoS. So far, I've planted Virginia Sweetspire, American Cranberrybush 'Wentworth', and some thornless blackberries. I want to get American hazelnut, Aronia or Hawthorn, and possibly Wild Plum. I have to choose carefully because I don't want these to grow much taller than 10 feet, 15 or so max.

It's interesting because a living hedge intended to keep goats in would necessarily be very different in character. As would ones intended to keep wild animals out. I think in Toby Hemenway's Gaia's Garden, he mentioned planting human edibles on the inside of the hedge/living fence and deer favorites on the other side, which kept the deer from wanting to come into the garden.

Susan W
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Interesting that you mention the osage hedge rows. I use the osage wood as a yellow-gold dye. When doing demos, usually don't use at historic sites much E of the Mississippi. A general rule of thumb is it wasn't grown E of the river until 1800. The Natives used it for making bows, and a bit was surely traded east.
My next major demo is at Ft Toulouse/Ft Jackson AL. I figured as the event encompasses many years (into 19th c) will have an osage pot. Most people find it interesting that it was introduced in the 19th c as hedge row and fence posts, and isn't native.
The wood is a definite yellow, and I can do a screaming yellow on wool which tickles the kids.

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Susan
I'd be interested on where to find info on making that dye sometime!

Scott

zone9garden.com
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I made a living fence out of grapes! It took a few years to cover the entire area, but well worth it!

thanrose
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What kind of grapes? If they are muscadines or muscadine cross, you'll have some protection from Pierce's Disease, the virus that kills Vitis vinifera in the southern states generally before the fifth year of growth. If they aren't muscadines, you might want to interplant some of them now.

zone9garden.com
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They are muscadines.... I don't like to eat them, but some of my friends and family do so I allow them to come on over and pick all they want!

thanrose
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Haha, let me know. I'll be over to make some wine for you.

Barbara Lloyd
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Another fencing plant that works well here is Pyracantha. It too has thorns and a kid might run through it once, but think about it the next time.... :( barb

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lorax
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rainbowgardener wrote:In Costa Rica, where I stayed for a couple months, living fences are everywhere, but with an exotic tropical twist: They cut tree branches (I'm sure it makes a difference what kind of tree, but I never found out what they were), trim them up and stick them in the ground for fence posts, string a couple rows of wire along them. The branches then take root and grow and become a living fence. You can tell how long the fence has been there by how far along it is in development from a fence post/stick to a full grown tree. You can see the history of the tree, because all the branches start from one point, which used to be the top of the stick. I thought it was so cool...
The most common living fence tree in South and Central America is Erythrina of varying species (Coral Beans), followed closely by Higuerones (Ficus spp, particularly F. elastica).

For standalone living fences, Lantana camara is also quite popular in Ecuador.

This said, my favourite living fences have to be ones that use a combo of Xyloxanthum and Euphorbia tirucalli. I had these when I lived in Loja province; they were Xeric so I hardly had to water them; Xyloxanthum has wicked cat's claw type thorns, and E. tirucalli exudes a super-caustic latex. We caught a burglar once who had hung up in the fence trying to get in; we found him in the morning, and he said he'd been trying to get out of the fence since about midnight the previous night. The cops had to cut him out; he said he'd never steal again after that experience.

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Ozark Lady
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Catching burglars, now that is a good use for living fences that I would never have thought of! :lol:

I well remember playing "kick the can" and tripping over mama's roses, you only did that once. And the wild roses, forget it, no way did you get near them. So, sure it would definitely stop human traffic too!

My goats love to eat locust, roses, blackberries etc. sometimes they look like that hurts, but tastes so good! So, I am not sure how good the living fences would work to keep goats in.

I am thinking living fence interplanted with various herbs that would benefit the goats and poultry.



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