I am trying that (sort of) to make a living gazebo for my chickens. I am using the nasty invasive pears that I spend so much time destroying. I pick a few that form a ring and bend and tie them as you describe. I am hoping eventually it will create a dome like enclosure for them to hang out in and be safe from hawks.There are many techniques for laying a hedge. Easiest if starting from scratch is to plant the saplings in a row and bend every other (cutting it half way through at the bend point if necessary) and tie that to the base of the next sapling. To grow a more robust hedge one plants two rows of of the saplings half a metre apart and in the second row one bends and fixes opposite to the first row.