Hazel Hurdle Fence Panels 1ft x 6ft

Most gardens are undone by their edges. Beds bleed into lawn, gravel wanders where it shouldn’t, and the whole thing reads as unfinished no matter how well the planting has done. A one-foot hazel hurdle settles that in an afternoon, and it settles it the old way — split hazel rods woven around uprights, the same craft that has been edging English gardens since long before anyone thought to sell plastic by the metre.

At 30cm high and a full 6ft wide this is the smallest panel we make and, for a lot of gardens, the most useful. Run it along the front of a border and it holds soil and mulch where you put them. Set it either side of a path and a route becomes an avenue. Ring a vegetable bed and it keeps the rhubarb honest without casting a shadow over anything. Low enough to step over, and strong enough not to mind if you do.

The colour is a soft silvery grey-brown, with olive and honey where the bark has weathered, and it pales gently over the seasons. Hazel recedes rather than announces — which is exactly what you want from something whose job is to make the planting look good. If you would rather the edging brought colour, our willow hurdles are a deep red-brown.

Why the weave matters even at a foot high

Because the weave is open, air moves straight through it. Nothing gets trapped behind it, nothing rots against it, and you don’t get the frost pocket that forms behind solid board. The panel is woven green so it tensions against itself as it dries — nothing is nailed, and there is nothing to work loose.