Rebuilding a Hedgerow Sette

Rebuilding a hedgerow sette is one of those things you should be doing.

Sette reconstruction is not terribly difficult -- it's simply a matter of getting sticks and downed branches and jambing them crossways in the hole.

A few sticks are not really going to do it -- the dirt will simply fall through the gaps. As best you can, you need to make a real roof across the hole, using logs, grass, sheet of barks, old plastic feed sacks pulled from the den, and pretty much anything else you can find at hand.

Rebuilding a field sette is NOT something the farmer is going to want you to do, which is just as well since you will have no sticks at hand. Just fill in the hole, and try to put a plug or two of sod back on top. If you are short on dirt, due to the infill falling into the tube, simple take away some of the dirt pile at the entrance to the pipe.





After the dirt is shoveled on top of the stick roof, take a few minutes to "landscaped" with leaves, more twigs, bark, branches, multiflora rose, and whatever else you can find to make the hedge look "natural" again. If you do a decent job of repairing your settes, the hedge will remain active longer, and the area will look fine when you pass by again in a few weeks. It's a bit like camping -- the goal is to make it look as if no one had ever been there.