The hedge typically functions as a barrier in public spaces, separating and demarcating our surroundings. Hedges are placed around most people’s land or gardens to define their property and create privacy. They are “growing fence.”

In Denmark and some other countries, such a hedge has become a symbol of fear, of what is foreign and unknown: you hide behind your hedge in your private garden; you don’t speak to the people on the other side of the hedge, and you can’t see them.