Hedge Flailing and Debris

[Mick F]

Locally, the tractor machine thingy has been out flailing.
Today, as well as a week ago.
The lanes are a MESS.
Dangerous for we cyclists, difficult for walkers, and very inconvenient for car drivers ............ and I had to stop at one point whist driving this afternoon to pull out a branch that'd stuck under the car.

I sent a snotty message to Cornwall Council, leaving my contact details and all the info of where etc. I pulled no punches.
In the last few minutes, CC telephoned me, and asked me for more info, but had to say that it wasn't they that had done the work. I said that recently CC had resurfaced one of our local lanes and they cleaned up after flailing, and he remembered as he was part of the team.

He added that they had LEGAL duty to clean up.

The chap said that he would refer my complaint back to the office and they would get onto the landowner(s).

Good!

[VinceLedge]

Puncture season

[Mick F]

Not many blackthorn involved at all, but mainly hazel, loads of sycamore, willow, and beech.
It's just all a complete and utter mess.

----------------------------------

Off topic.
Blackthorn is really called Quickthorn.
As in "quick" means alive, and not "fast".
Quick is to with that the white blossom comes out early and before their leaves, whilst many other trees and bushes still look winter-dead.

[Barrowman]

I have said it before here.
Hedge cuttings are Litter in my opinion and there is legislation on the statute books to deal with it.
(Retired Police Officer)
Running a gang mower down a hedge is a cheap way of maintaining/controlling it but whoever is doing it has a legal obligation to clear up after they do so.
Getting someone to take on enforcement is a different problem, sadly.

[hoogerbooger]

Flailing hedges is normal agricultural practice, and if done well can be good at maintaining a hedge that is both good for wildlife and landscape. I get punctures too and it's annoying, but I'd rather have hedges than not. If branches are left on the road that may be a real hazard, but I"m afraid I can't take seriously those( admittedly quite a few) on this forum who seem to think farmers should go around sweeping up the finer debris... which may still cause bike punctures. It's just a small inconvenience for still having a rural landscape and community that hasn't quite fallen over yet and disappeared....( well where I am in Wales anyway).

On the off topic, " Quicks" are Hawthorne, (whereas Blackthorne is .....er..."Sloe". Blackthorne indeed flowers early ...in April, whereas Hawthorne flowers later...in May, hence it's monica of May blossom......oh yes and both thornes will cause punctures..

[Dingdong]

Locally, the tractor machine thingy has been out flailing.
Today, as well as a week ago.
The lanes are a MESS.
Dangerous for we cyclists, difficult for walkers, and very inconvenient for car drivers ............ and I had to stop at one point whist driving this afternoon to pull out a branch that'd stuck under the car.

I sent a snotty message to Cornwall Council, leaving my contact details and all the info of where etc. I pulled no punches.
In the last few minutes, CC telephoned me, and asked me for more info, but had to say that it wasn't they that had done the work. I said that recently CC had resurfaced one of our local lanes and they cleaned up after flailing, and he remembered as he was part of the team.

He added that they had LEGAL duty to clean up.

The chap said that he would refer my complaint back to the office and they would get onto the landowner(s).

Good!

So nothing will ever happen then!

[ANTONISH]

I had my first thorn puncture of the season last week.
I don't often get punctures but if I do it's usually in flailing season.

[Jdsk]

Is there a code of practice or similar for flailing?

Thanks

Jonathan

[Cugel]

Flailing hedges is normal agricultural practice, and if done well can be good at maintaining a hedge that is both good for wildlife and landscape. I get punctures too and it's annoying, but I'd rather have hedges than not. If branches are left on the road that may be a real hazard, but I"m afraid I can't take seriously those( admittedly quite a few) on this forum who seem to think farmers should go around sweeping up the finer debris... which may still cause bike punctures. It's just a small inconvenience for still having a rural landscape and community that hasn't quite fallen over yet and disappeared....( well where I am in Wales anyway).

On the off topic, " Quicks" are Hawthorne, (whereas Blackthorne is .....er..."Sloe". Blackthorne indeed flowers early ...in April, whereas Hawthorne flowers later...in May, hence it's monica of May blossom......oh yes and both thornes will cause punctures..

For the most part, the hedge cutting/flailing I come across (and its a lot in the hedge-cutting season, as me an t-ladywife cycle down miles & miles of country backroads) is done so that the debris gets flung into fields rather than on to the road. Very little goes on the road unless the nature of the road, field and separating hedge is such that the tractor and it's flail can't get the right angle of cut.

I've never seen a hedge cutting fellow somehow clean up debris from cutting that gets on the roads. How would this be done other than with a-one o' those old-fashioned gulley-sucker wagons that has a big angled whirr-brush underneath it? Not a piece of machinery found on farms, generally.

In any case, modern tyres are very much better than they used to be at resisting thorn punctures. Mick often boasts that he last had a puncture in 2015! I've had three in ten years - although I don't count the two recent ones where a chunk of blackthorn got in the tyre but, when pulled out, resulted only in a teeny weep of white latex for a couple of seconds before the hole sealed.

Yes! Get yer tubeless tyres now - lighter, faster and shrug of all but the ripping punctures!

Cugel

[MikeF]

Flailing hedges is normal agricultural practice, and if done well can be good at maintaining a hedge that is both good for wildlife and landscape. I get punctures too and it's annoying, but I'd rather have hedges than not. If branches are left on the road that may be a real hazard, but I"m afraid I can't take seriously those( admittedly quite a few) on this forum who seem to think farmers should go around sweeping up the finer debris... which may still cause bike punctures. It's just a small inconvenience for still having a rural landscape and community that hasn't quite fallen over yet and disappeared....( well where I am in Wales anyway).

On the off topic, " Quicks" are Hawthorne, (whereas Blackthorne is .....er..."Sloe". Blackthorne indeed flowers early ...in April, whereas Hawthorne flowers later...in May, hence it's monica of May blossom......oh yes and both thornes will cause punctures..

Hedges are very rarely falied well. They should have a roughly apical shape, but most are flailed with a flat top and sides which results in a gappy hedge with all the regrowth on top, and isn't "good for wildlife" or keeping stock within the field. Branches should not be flailed, but often are. There are different types of hedges throughout Britain. The ones in Mick's area are more likely banks with mainly hedge growth on top. One contractor I used at work for path flailing had a tractor with a blower incorporated near the TPO which kept nearly all the débris off the path.

Off topic. You are right Quickthorn is Hawthorn/May, no doubt so called because a hedge can easily be made or infilled with its good growth. It flowers after leaf emergence. Blackthorn flowers before leaf emergence often around March. Possibly the name "Black" derives from the fact that pricks from its thorns will often turn septic unlike Hawthorn.

[Mick F]

Sorry, off topic a bit!

If you call hawthorn quickthorn, you are wrong.

Quickthorn is Blackthorn.
Quick means "alive" ........ and not "fast".

Quickthorn has the white blossom out well before any other tree/bush, and well before any leaves are showing.
Quickthorn shows itself to be alive whilst everything else looks dead, even hawthorn.

The word, I am reliably informed, comes from the Anglo Saxon language for quick. Quick means alive, not fast!!!!

ORIGIN
Old English cwic, cwicu ‘alive, animated, alert’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch kwiek ‘sprightly’ and German keck ‘saucy’, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin vivus ‘alive’ and Greek bios, zōē ‘life’.

[Jdsk]

... and quickthorn (blackthorn if you like that modern name)...

Isn't quickthorn a Crataegus, and blackthorn Prunus spinosa? Or is there a regional variation in the naming?

Thanks

Jonathan

[hoogerbooger]

Yes agree with that MickF. Also flailing in the opposite direction to a hedge is laid.....where they still are.... and if left too many years between flaying...leaves a shabby looking hedge with lots of debris somewhere.

( I did sweep/pick up after my roadside hedge was flayed .......badly...... particularly the blackthorne.....fingers certainly hurt for several days after getting jagged by it)

Jdsk: yes you are correct.....and probably is regional variance in daily use

[foxyrider]

...but I"m afraid I can't take seriously those( admittedly quite a few) on this forum who seem to think farmers should go around sweeping up the finer debris... which may still cause bike punctures. It's just a small inconvenience for still having a rural landscape and community that hasn't quite fallen over yet and disappeared....

Its not a 'small inconvenience' and the debris could cause a nasty 'accident'. I don't think anyone would seriously expect a farmer/contractor to sweep every last bit of their, not mine or yours, their rubbish odd the highway but its not beyond the means of any of them to do a sweep with a tractor mounted rotary yard brush that they'll have for the farm anyhow to remove the bulk of it. I've found myself on lanes in the last 12 months that had so much debris from flailing that you could hardly see the tarmac, that is not a 'small inconvenience', that is tantamount to fly tipping.

[simonineaston]

re the raised risk of punctures, a freak accident occured some years ago where the tractor's flail went through some barbed wire in the hedgerow and pieces flew off at high speed, one puncturing the operator's chest and lodging in his aorta. He reported he was unaware until he began to feel bad later that same day, but luckily took himself off to A&E on the insistance of his family whereupon the presence of the piece was revealed by x-ray - a lucky escape!