Not a dryad of the beeches, / Through the filmy forest-reaches, / That a tress of summer pleaches, / But had owned her queen; …

These stems should be stripped (or nearly so) of their branches, and notched at the bottom (in the way which every hedger knows) to form a pleach: these pleaches should be laid in the intervals along the line of the stubs, and again notched, …

The pleaches are laid over all in the same direction and stakes are driven in so as to come alternately behind and in front of the stems laid over, but the ends of the pleaches are made to finish all on one side, that is to say, on the opposite side of the hedge to the notches. … The hedger treads down his pleaches so as to make a firm and solid hedge and winds round the tops of the stakes long, clean rods of hazel, …

Traditional hedge laying involves, first, clearing away undergrowth and weeds, particularly from a hedge that has been neglected and allowed to grow tall. Untidy side branches are removed. A cut, known as a pleach, is made in the back of the trunk, leaving a 'hinge'; old-time hedgers recommend that this should be as thick as a lamb's tongue.

When laying hedges, notches (pleaches) are cut in branches that are to be bent (the bent bits must go upwards, otherwise the sap will not run).

The season in which to pleach is not when the hedge is growing, but in the fall, between the falling of the leaves and the time when winter sets in. Osage thorn hedge should not be pleached during severe freezing weather, but pleaching may be done in mild weather, when there is but little frost in the wood, and in the winter in southern latitudes. In the northern belt, where the Osage thorn thrives, which is as far north as southern Wisconsin, it is not safe to pleach in winter.

[I]n Messina, he pleaches Leonato's bower with honeysuckle; …

In the southern and western districts of the county [Shropshire], a hatchet used by farmers and gardeners is called a "brummuck." … "Pleaching" hedges, a task needing much skill, is done with brummucks.

Here the reed warblers swing their dainty cradle, rocked by every gust which sways the tall reeds which they cunningly pleach and plait into its fragile sides, but woven deep enough to guard their tiny green and brown marbled eggs from accident.

You finish your A levels, you are so busy discovering yourself that you forget to go to college or get a vocation, you start working in a pub, and, when your best and only friend leaves town, you become a loner and invest yourself in things that rely little on the company of others, like pleaching willow and learning how to slum it comfortably under the stars, and singing.

Pleach

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Noun

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