Hedges (again)
Posted By Judith on 4th December 2017
Regular readers will no doubt be aware of our ‘love/hate’ relationship with hedges. It all began back in 1998 when we moved into Ravendale House. The hedge cutting there was an annual event that took us several days to complete.
In 2013, when we decided to move, we made a list of what we would like/not like at our new home and one of the ‘not likes’ was a lot of hedging and definitely not hawthorn.
But guess what? Here at ‘Grassy Bottom’ we have hedges on all 4 sides and it’s all hawthorn. Best laid plans eh?
In July of this year you may remember we made the decision to cut the 2 hedges along the road by hand, rather than wait for the man with the big machine, who came at the beginning of October last year.
It’s a good job we did too because it’s now the beginning of December and we still haven’t seen him, though we are assured we are on his ‘to do’ list. Fortunately, because of our work in July, the hedge doesn’t look too bad, but it just wants tidying up and a straight edge putting along the top, which the big machine is very good at, although a little brutal.
A few weeks ago we tackled one of the hedges that adjoins our neighbours. You might remember we did it around the same time last year. Then we cut it down to about 6′, this year we have cut it down to about 5′. Much easier to manage and cut next year, or so we all hope.
It took 4 of us over 3 hours and our share of the resulting ‘fall-out’ reminded us of the pile we made not long after we moved in that we affectionately called ‘Uluru’. Though it has to be said it acquired less cuddly names as we struggled to burn it all.
Sadly this latest pile has grown since the picture was taken and can’t be burnt due to the vegetable garden being on the old bonfire site, so it will have to go in the ‘green’ bin which is normally emptied every 2 weeks. Unfortunately, due to council cut backs, it will only get emptied 4 times between now and the end of March, so it’s going to take a while to dispose of.
We were all tired by the end but not as tired as our hedge trimmer which died before the job was quite finished. Fortunately Jim came round with his to finish the few remaining ‘twiddly’ bits.
So that just left the hedge adjoining our other neighbours to do. We left it until last because it had some rather splendid nasturtiums growing up through it and it seemed a shame to wreck them whilst they were still flowering.
I love nasturtiums and usually just let them self seed, but this year I’d actually bought a pack of a named variety ‘Mahogany Gleam’ and very handsome they’ve been too. I’ve collected lots of seeds and hope they come ‘true’.
The frost has killed them now, so full steam ahead on the final hedge.
We bought a new hedge trimmer from Tescos of all places, because it was a good price and highly recommended by previous purchasers. A smart red and black number as you can see in this picture of Peter attacking the rough bit by the shed.
It doesn’t really match his jumper, but what can you do?!
