Hawthorn, Blackthorn and any other thorn.

Anyone who plants a hawthorn hedge and leaves it unattended for thirty years should be shot.  Anyone who plants a blackthorn hedge and leaves it unattended for any length of time greater than twelve months should be hung, drawn and quartered.  I have just finished cutting down the hedge that runs alongside my orchard, it was past the help of remedial action.  After I had cut the ivy that was slowly strangling it away and killed most of it I left it for a year to see what happened.  If the person who planted it had given it a little TLC every year it would have still been in good order.  A hedge needs attention.  Thorns are terrible things to deal with when they are twenty feet tall and tangled with ivy and each other and blackthorn in particular is vicious.  It  seems that every stab or cut from blackthorn turns septic, hawthorn just hurts.  But still the job is done, pictures to follow.