The gardener who starts a hedge should expect it to take time. It is an exercise in patience. Rewards will take five to ten years. Little wonder homeowners build fences.
Hedges with berries will feed birds, and the row will provide them with a place to nest. Those birds keep pests at bay.
Generations since the 1980s grew up with the personal computer. Computer chips have grown more powerful and sped up everything. It is habit forming. A hedge teaches long-term thinking, planning, and implementation. The slow pacing of getting from hundreds of three-inch cuttings to a tall, impenetrable hedgerow has a rhythm that forces patience and care, week on week, month on month, year on year. This is the patience needed to start a savings account for retirement, paying off debt, changing habits like eating and fitness, and perfecting a craft or skill.
In an age of instant answers to queries, gardeners need to grow a hedge to remind them of nature's time.
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