Are you ready to live #LifeOnTheHedge?

Want a career in nature but don’t know where to start? The Life On The Hedge podcast is for you. In each episode, you’ll hear from an amazing young person at the beginning of a blossoming career in nature as they explore the magic of hedgerows and the ever-growing world of green jobs.

Wildlife love hedges

Get the inside scoop!

In each episode, we head outside to show you what it’s like to plant trees, cultivate native species, lay hedges, work with farmers and volunteers and discover the wildlife that depends upon our hedges. You’ll get the inside scoop on how they got started in their roles and we’ve got loads of handy links and resources available to help you start out on your own journey.

Listen to the podcast

Life On The Hedge: Episode 1

Episode 1: Giving wildlife a helping hand

In the first episode of this series, we find out how hedgerows are helping farmers protect an abundance of wildlife, from birds to bumble bees, butterflies and fungi, in Herefordshire.

Life On The Hedge: Episode 2

Episode 2: Growing a greener future

In this episode, horticulture trainee Paula Ilut tells us why she’s passionate about preserving our future landscapes with tree planting.

Life On The Hedge Episode 3

Episode 3: Secrets of the city

You might be surprised just about how biodiverse our urban environments can be. But hedgerows can play a huge part in keeping our towns and cities bursting with wildlife, whilst helping our physical and mental health too.

Life On The Hedge: Episode 4

Episode 4: How to build a landscape

In this episode we meet Sasha Georgiades, a trainee with the Devon Rural Skills Trust. She’s spent the last four years learning how to become a hedgelayer and invites us to work with her in Ipplepen, near Newton Abbot.

Life On The Hedge: Episode 5

Episode 5: Cultural cultivation

Today we’re off to Penpont in the Brecon Beacons as 30 young volunteers and future conservationists undertake a mission to plant 3,000 trees in a day, restoring a degraded hedgerow.

Life On The Hedge Podcast: Episode 6

Episode 6: Creating and protecting our future forests

In the final episode of our series we head to Glentress Forest, just south of Edinburgh, to meet Emma Bryden, a member of Scotland’s Young People’s Forest Project.

Thank you

A huge thank you to the partners who made this series possible. The Tree Council created Life on the Hedge as part of the Close the Gap programme, funded by the Government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund. The fund was developed by Defra and is being delivered by the National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with Natural England and the Environment Agency.

Green Recover Challenge Fund Partners