HEDGE-cutters do a wonderful job, yet here is a plea for landowners to please leave a bit to grow on where it is away from the roads.

You'll still have control, and cut it in the following year or so.

It's just for that froth of blossom and the buds harbouring insects over winter, and the red of the hawthorn berries till the flock of fieldfares land.

Nature should be allowed its bountiful harvest just as we demand ours.

A mature hedge left a year or two is a pleasure to forage and is becoming a thing of the past.

Nowadays the countryside is sterile, and there's a multi-million pound bird feed industry, but we can't rely on importing crops to feed our fast-declining bird population. Just relax a little and leave nature to do its thing.

Emily Gaunt

Wigmore