Hawthorn in a narrow border of the lawn

I bought my house with an old field hedge of hawthorn in situ. . I let this grow wild, except for ivy control, and I love how the blossom festoons over my back yard beside the back door. I always like height among my garden plants. I even found space for an oak tree!

You can prune them into small trees (like a standard rose) by taking off the lower branches as they sprout. Then you can keep it as short or tall as you like.

I have three single straight stems of hawthorn

There would not, in all probability, be any birds' nests in single stems but there may be in the rest of the area if it's overgrown.

The months of March through to the end of July is the breeding season for birds and as far as hedge cutting is concerned is considered a closed season and unless there exists unavoidable health and safety concerns hedge cutting during this season should be avoided

25Avalon

Yes you can prune hawthorn into a hedge but please be careful there are no nesting birds if you do it now. I would also warn you that hawthorn hedges are very spikey so not the easiest to prune and they flower much better as a tree rather than a hedge. You could keep one as a small tree.

but please be careful there are no nesting birds if you do it now

Good thought, 25Avalon
November - January is probably the best time.

Yes you can prune hawthorn into a hedge but please be careful there are no nesting birds if you do it now. I would also warn you that hawthorn hedges are very spikey so not the easiest to prune and they flower much better as a tree rather than a hedge. You could keep one as a small tree.

Lucky you - they'll be beautiful with white blossom and red berries each year. You can let them grow to a metre or so and then snip the top off to make them bush out into shrubs. Very good for birds and all sorts of different mini-beasts.

If you want them they are easy to manage but take then out if they don't fit with your border.

We keep ours as a hedge, it's mingled in with other bushes and would-be trees but it gets cut down to about 7-8 ft ie 2/2.5 metres every year.

Where I live there are lots of hawthorn hedges. They look beautiful at this time of year, full of white blossom.
They don't mind hard pruning to keep them in check.

It’s so lovely when we get gifts growing for free. Hawthorns are very amenable to being pruned to shape and height. They are very good for wildlife.

If you can keep them quite small, they are lovely trees, especially when in blossom.