Practical workshop "Planting a natural calendar hedge"
Some of us know the nursery rhyme: January, February, March, April - the annual clock never stands still... In our everyday life we divide the year into four seasons. Spring, summer, fall and winter - but does everyone know when early spring begins? Or what to do in the garden in full autumn?
The plant world has its own division of the year - in the so-called "phenological calendar" alone nature sets the pace. There are 10 seasons in the phenological calendar, which are based on the observation of annually recurring natural phenomena such as the beginning of flowering or the fall of leaves in plants, but also on the behavior of animals. Each of these seasons is indicated by plants typical of it and is strongly dependent on the annual and regionally different development of nature. For example, early spring begins with the snowdrops, full spring with the apple blossom and late autumn when the oak leaves show themselves in a blaze of colour.
Nature sends its signals at the right time
Nature has always provided gardeners and farmers with important insights. Observing nature has always helped gardeners and farmers to find the right time to till the beds and fields. If you look closely, you can observe an annual repeating, precise sequence of budding, flowering, fruit ripening and leaf color in the forest and meadows, but also in the garden, or even the return of the swallows.
Especially in spring and summer, the temperature has a major impact on the speed of plant development. Even a temperature increase of 1 °C allows many spring phases, such as flowering, to start a week earlier. This makes the effects of global temperature rise and the associated climate change directly visible and comprehensible. (Hedge) plants act like very sensitive measuring instruments for the atmosphere near the ground and react immediately to the changing temperature development of recent years with increasingly earlier flowering or fruit ripening.
Due to climate change, observing nature is more important than ever for our agriculture and hardly any other group looks at its development over the course of the year as closely as our farmers. Especially with native, regional hedge plants such as elder, hazel & Co, you can document both the arrival of the natural seasons of the natural year and the effects of climate change on your own farm and in the region and thus always have an overview of the growth of sufficiently good forage for the dairy cows and that local meadows remain colorful and rich in species.
Woerle farmers as active living space designers
As part of the federal, state and EU-funded project "We builders for diversity", in which WOERLE is a project partner, our farmers with our cheese dairy, the ÖKL as project sponsor, the office LACON and the HBLA Ursprung actively involved with topics "All about the variety of hedges and woody structures" and their implementation in practice. Together, a 30m long regional nature calendar was created on the school grounds in Ursprung! Below are a few impressions. Many thanks to our speaker Klaus Wanninger (LACON – Ransmayr, Vondruska & Wanninger OG).
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Did you know that…
…that hedge plants not only indicate the seasons, but are also very important for biodiversity and climate protection? Hedge plants are important protection against soil erosion, serve as a water reservoir and as a habitat for insects, birds and small mammals. In addition, they are also valuable CO2-Storage that filters climate-damaging gases from the air. According to current estimates, hedges can absorb as much CO2 remember that a newly planted hedge 67 meters long could offset the average annual greenhouse gas emissions of a person.
Which hedge plants help nature: local, regional varieties such as black elder, hazelnut, buckthorn, field maple, sloe, cornel, wild rose, alder buckthorn, etc.
Which hedge plants do not have a particular ecological benefit: exotic varieties such as thuja, cherry laurel
