Legal information about the decorative image: Foto: UR/Green Office/Elisabeth Meier

Benjes Hedge

A Benjes hedge (= deadwood hedge) is a natural privacy and windbreak made from piled branches and shrub cuttings that provides a habitat for birds, insects and small animals. Over time, rotting plant material creates a dense hedge all by itself - without any new planting!

By the way: it is named after the farmer Hermann Benjes?

Brief description of the project

Together for more biodiversity!

What is the aim? To create a habitat for small animals and insects that can hide in the branches, build their nests or simply rest.

When? Together with students, the hedge is extended every spring, coordinated by OTH Regensburg.

What is a Benjes hedge?

Benjes hedges (= deadwood hedges) are a sensible method of utilising cut branches and are also an enrichment for the ecosystem. Birds ? build their nests in them, hedgehogs ? find shelter and they also provide protected winter quarters for a number of other mostly very useful animals ??. It is also a real playground for animals such as woodlice, spiders and insects ???. As a result of this hustle and bustle, but also through the help of wind, weather and birds, more and more seeds from the surrounding area accumulate. The hedge thus begins as a kind of blank canvas that is gradually colonised by animals and plants.

Photo of the Benjeshecken campaign 2025 with committed people from OTH Regensburg, the Green Office of UR and the Sustainability Network.

This is how it continues

Next spring (probably March 2026) there will again be dates for the expansion of the Benjes hedge.

Would you like to take part?

Student support is expressly welcome for these activities! If you are planning another project to promote biodiversity, please get in touch with us at greenoffice(at)ur.de (opens your email program)!

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