Is This Our Nemesis?
Posted By Judith on 31st October 2016
Hedge cutting.
Nemesis: A long-standing rival; an arch-enemy.
Until 1998 hedges had figured little in our lives, but at ‘Ravendale House’ we had miles of them to look after, or so it seemed.
In the beginning most of them were cut by a local farmer with his big machine as they were a good 7′ high and quite inaccessible to us, but after a few years we decided to cut them down to about 4′.
What a job! but what a revelation too, it made so much difference to the overall look and feel of the whole garden. Well worth the effort.
After that we cut them ourselves and it became an annual event that took the 2 of us several days to complete. It was very hard work but the results were reward enough as each year we transformed this overgrown mess
into this.
You can never trim a hawthorn hedge to look as neat as a privet, but we had a jolly good try.
On moving to ‘Grassy Bottom’ we hoped we’d put all that hedge husbandry behind us, but no. One of the first jobs we did, even before we moved in, was to cut the inner conifer hedge down by about half.
Once again it transformed the feel of the whole garden, but there was a lot of ‘fall-out’ which grew into a huge pile, some of which you can see here.
Disposing of hedge clippings is always a problem which is one reason we get most of the long hedge along the road cut by the big machine. The ditch that runs it’s full length is also a factor as it makes it impossible to reach. The rest we do by hand, helped by Terry.
The final ‘hedge job’ of this year was the one between us and our neighbours, which had been allowed to get out of control during Gladys’s time, partly because it had a thumping big garage and shed right in front of it making access almost impossible. Here you can see Peter admiring his hard work.
Jackie, our neighbour, had attacked it from the other side simultaneously, and between them they did a pretty good job of cutting about 12″ or so off the top (whilst I held the ladder and tidied up). It’s still quite high but it does look so much better now its got more of a straight top to it.
Elsewhere our next task will be the vegetable bed.
It’s been used as a dumping ground and bonfire site over the last 2 years, but I’m hoping that next year I might actually grow some veg.
Here you can see it with rudimentary paths marked out and in the background is the aforementioned hedge partially cut. Of course Leonard was on hand to oversee matters.
After all this hard work I’ll leave you with a relaxing photo.
Sunrise at ‘Grassy Bottom’.
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