Vetiver Grass Hedgerows - Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia

Vetiver hedgerow planted in the mid 1990s. The soils are black cracking soils that are very erosive under flooding conditions. Vetiver hedge barriers slow down the flood flow, spread out any flow concentrations and filter out sediment as shown in the picture below (see sediment deposition on right hand side of hedge. These narrow vetiver hedgrows replace wide fallow buffer strips that took as much as 30% of the land out of cultivation in any one year.

Note that the width of the hedges has spread out to only 50cm after 10 years on the best soil, less on the poorer soils.

The hedgrows have thickened up slowly and no signs of pest or diseases. Farmers those who have used vetiver, can't have enough of it.