Why the wind is your orchard's quietest enemy

Wind does more damage in a fruit garden than most growers realise. It strips blossom in May, snaps young leaders, and batters fruit against branches so you end up with bruised, scabby apples. It also dries out soil and leaf surfaces, stressing trees exactly when they want to be putting on growth. On exposed sites the difference between a sheltered tree and an unsheltered one can be a fortnight's head start in spring and a noticeably heavier crop.

A hedge is the traditional answer, and it is still the best one. Unlike a solid fence or wall, a living hedge is porous — it lets perhaps half the wind through, which breaks the force of a gust without creating the violent turbulence a solid barrier causes. The shelter it gives extends roughly ten to twenty times its own height downwind. A two-metre hedgerow, properly planted, can calm a whole garden's worth of ground.

Picking your species: a native mix that earns its keep

Native hedging is the sensible choice. These are the plants that have grown in British hedgerows for centuries, and they cope with our soils and our weather. Aim for four to six species so the hedge flowers and fruits across a long season — that helps pollinators and gives birds cover and food well into winter.

• Hawthorn — the backbone of any farm hedge: quick to establish, dense and thorny.
• Blackthorn — early white blossom for pollinators, sloes in autumn.
• Hazel — good structure, and nuts if you beat the squirrels to them.
• Field maple — our only native maple, with lovely autumn colour.
• Holly — evergreen, so it blocks wind in winter and shelters birds.
• Dog rose, guelder rose, spindle and crab apple — flowering, berrying plants that fill the hedge with interest.

On heavy clay, hornbeam and field maple do well. On chalk, add wayfaring tree and dogwood. All of these come as bare-root whips at a fraction of the cost of potted plants. Order in autumn for planting from November onwards.

Planting properly: spacing, soil and the first cut

Prepare the ground the autumn before planting. Strip off the turf in a strip about a metre wide and fork the soil over to a spade's depth, working in some well-rotted manure if you have it. Grass competition is what kills young hedging, so this is not a step to skip.

Plant whips in a double, staggered row. Space them about 40cm apart within the rows and set the rows roughly 45cm apart, giving you five or six whips per metre of hedge. That sounds dense, but the roots knit together quickly and the hedge thickens from the base rather than going bare and leggy.

Set each whip at the same depth it was growing in the nursery — look for the darker soil mark on the bark — firm it in gently with your heel and water it in. Protect with a spiral guard against rabbits and voles, which will happily ring-bark a whip in a single night.

After planting, cut every deciduous whip back to about 15cm. It feels brutal, but it forces the plant to break low down and bush out, which is exactly what you want. Holly and other evergreens can be left alone.

Where to run the hedge so it shelters without shading

Position matters as much as species. Our prevailing wind comes from the south-west, so a hedge on that side of the plot gives the greatest shelter for your money. A second hedge on the north-east is a bonus on exposed sites.

• Keep it clear of the fruit trees. Leave at least five metres between the hedge and your first row of trees, or you will be fighting hedge roots for water and nutrients.
• Never block the bottom of a slope. Cold air needs to drain away downhill; a solid hedge across the base of a hollow turns it into a frost pocket that will cost you blossom and fruit.
• Keep the hedge lower than the trees once the orchard matures — roughly 1.8 to 2.5 metres is ideal. Anything taller will shade the rows to the north and cut the light your apples and pears need to ripen.

Cutting, trimming and laying: the long game

In the first two years, trim lightly in late winter to keep the sides even. From year three, cut once a year, and cut the face of the hedge on a slight batter — a slope running from top to bottom — so light reaches the base and it doesn't go bare at ground level.

Timing is not just horticultural. Cut between September and the end of February, well clear of the nesting season, and you avoid disturbing birds and their broods. If you can, leave a section to flower and berry each year on rotation; an untidy corner is worth more to wildlife than a hedge trimmed to a box.

When the hedge is mature, consider traditional laying. Cutting part-way through the stems and bending them over gives you a thick, stock-proof barrier that regenerates from the base and will last a generation. It is a winter job, and it also cures the tired, hollow look hedges get after years of flailing. Failing that, a trimmer and a steady hand will keep it in order for decades.

What you get back in the long run

Be patient: a native hedge grows a metre or so a year once settled. By year five you will notice the difference — calmer air, more bees working your blossom, and the first nesting birds in the thorn.

By year ten you will have a boundary worth more than any fence panel, a corridor of shelter for wildlife across the garden, and a steady supply of sloes, hips, haws and nuts for the kitchen. Fruit trees planted behind a hedge crop more reliably, live longer and need less staking. It is one of the few jobs in the garden where the hard work of a single winter pays off for decades — and the best moment to start is this planting season.