Tag Archives: MIxed hedging

September Return

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September is a favourite month;

in fact I’d rank it in my top twelve.

The light is sharp and low and the gardens look pretty good with much still in flower.  But there is a chill in the air that promises change.

It will soon be time for regular bonfires and leaf raking; time for the perusal of bulb catalogues while sipping huge mugs of tea; chopping fire-wood;  making spring planting plans;  the clearing of herbaceous borders and the annual making-of-things (e.g. more nest-boxes and more leaf-mold bins).  And, best of all, September heralds tottering piles of buttery crumpets.

It is also a busy month at the Priory.  And it is far busier this year than usual.  For reasons I won’t bore you with, we’ve only just cut the beech hedge – rather than in early August.

The main beech arch with, right, a new one being trained

The wet summer meant that it had grown much more than in previous years and so took far longer to do.  Boy, did my arms ache.

Nick, Jim and I toiled a whole day; and then Jim and I toiled another.  All the trimmings then had to be collected and burnt; wreathing the gardens in constant, medieval wood smoke.

The mixed hedging normally only requires a light trim after its main cut in July – usually a swift job to remove a few arching bramble stems.  But not this year.  Again the wet summer had allowed it a secondary, unwanted and major growth spurt.

Jim cutting the mixed hedging

I asked Jim to come in again and help me get it re-cut.  It should now look crisp throughout its dormant months.

With the hedges cut, I could turn my attention to strimming.  There are large areas of grass that now need clearing.  Unmown they have been full of wildflowers but now they must be cut short before they are flattened by heavy rain and frost.

Sheep’s Bit Scabious (Jasione montana)

This is such a patch below the greenhouse; packed with Sheep’s Bit Scabious (Jasione montana) it has been spared my strimmer – for now.

About the ponds and ditches, I have reduced to ground level meadowsweet and ugly dock, nettle, perfidious bramble and unwanted, unloved self-sown willow and alder.  Whatever I cut, I rake up and barrow out to the bonfire.

The meadow is far too large an area for me to strim.  Next week, weather allowing, Sam and his huge, his amazing grass-cutting machine will tackle it.  (Heavy rain today forced us to postpone).

As if I haven’t got enough on my plate, rabbits have broken into the gardens once again to wreak havoc; nibbling through the wire netting as if it were cotton.  Damn them and their twitchy noses too.

I really ought to be moving tender plants into the warm, safe bosom of the greenhouse now except that it is still full of cucumbers and …

… tomatoes.  Weird, strange 2012.  And I have had a warning shot across the bows.  I really must get a move on and bed the gardens down for winter.  You see last Wednesday, on the 19th we had our first frost!

As it does every year, it has caught me by surprise.  Suddenly, summer has slipped away.  And me with the meadow still uncut, lots of strimming to do, loads of tender plants to move under cover, some of which I was still hoping would flower!  But not now.  Frost?  Already.  Cripes.  Yes, I really must get cracking.

Best get the crumpets on.

Cutting The Mixed Hedging

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There are three ‘Priory Big Jobs’ punctuating the summer: the cutting of the mixed hedging, the cutting of the beech hedging and the cutting of the meadow.  Last week, I set aside two days to tackle the first of these.  (We’ll tackle the beech hedging in August and the meadow in early September).

The Priory drive is a third of a mile long and accompanied on either side, for most of its length, by a hedge of mixed, native species.  I don’t cut it any earlier than July because it is full of …

… wild roses.

And I can’t possibly cut off …

… roses in bloom nor …

… wild honeysuckle.

The hedge doesn’t run all the way up from the house to the road.

For about half its length, the drive runs alongside Margaret’s wood (historically this eight acre wood was part of the Priory estate).  The wood is on the left in the above photo; on the right is a length of old hedge that has, over the years, been left uncut and grown into full-sized, if spindly, trees.  Someone once suggested that we cut all these trees down and re-instate the hedge line.  But I love the green tunnel that the overarching trees create; they form a roof with the oaks and ash and hazel of Margaret’s wood.  In high, hot summer (in any year but this one) it is a cool, lime-lit oasis.

By July, the hedge is shaggy and bristly.  Ash, especially, has sprouted tall.  Brambles arch out and down and grab me when I’m mowing the verges.

When I wrote about cutting the mixed hedging last year (see ‘The Mixed Hedging‘) some readers said how they preferred the look of the untrimmed hedges.  I’m inclined to agree but, of course, if the hedges weren’t cut annually they would soon end up like the ‘hedge’ up in the wood – a line of trees.  And the hedge serves an important purpose; it keeps Margaret’s cows and sheep off the estate.

I need help with these ‘Priory Big Jobs.’  So I hauled in Nick to come and give me a hand.  We loaded up the trailer with two petrol hedge trimmers and two long reach trimmers.  I consulted long and hard before buying any power tools for the Priory (there were none when I started).  From all I was told, from what I read and from my own limited experience, I bought only Stihl.  And I haven’t been disappointed.

Having cut the sides with the ordinary trimmer, Nick sets to on the hedge top with the long reach.

These long reach trimmers give us … er, a long reach with which to cut tall hedges without the hassle of using ladders or staging.  But they are heavy and after several hours use my arms were singing with pain.

Having finished the line down by the house, we drove the quad (very, very fast) up to the top of the drive where the hedge re-emerges from the wood.

After cutting the sides, we took it in turns to perch precariously (but terrifically bravely) on the back of the quad in order to reach the hedge top, while the other intermittently drove slowly forward.  This method is not approved by the Priory Health & Safety Executive and so I am unable to show you photos.  (The PHSE have also raised serious concerns at Nick’s refusal to wear eye, head or ear protectors.  But frankly he doesn’t give a stuff).

After discussion with Nick, I am considering reducing the height of this stretch of the hedge; its height just makes it too tricky to cut.

After we’d finished cutting there was still all the clearing up to do.  I lost count (after ten) of the number of trailer-loads I ran down (very, very fast) to the bonfire site.  Once raked, the drive also needed clearing with a leaf blower.  Try as you might, you’d struggle to design anything more effective to puncture a car tyre than a little blackthorn off-cut.  I speak from experience.

And so, Big Job Number One completed.  As usual, I shall need to give it a light trim in a few weeks time; to maintain a crispness throughout the autumn and winter.

Part of the mixed hedging as seen from the greenhouse.  The hedge in the foreground is Margaret’s and will be cut by tractor in a few weeks time.

This is only the second year that I’ve cut the Priory hedges.  We used to hire in contractors but doing it myself, gives us flexibility in when it is done (and saves a shed-load of money).  But I have realised that taking two days out of the gardens in July is too much (I’m now behind with the mowing again).  Next year we’ll spread the job out over two weeks.  Hedge cutting is now an integral part of my gardening/estate management year; a milestone.  Though it is hard, tiring, muscle-screaming work it is also immensely satisfying.  Well done, Nick.  Well done, me!

The Mixed Hedging

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Snaking up from the house to the road, the Priory drive is about three hundred yards long and for much of that distance is bordered by a beautiful, old, mixed hedge.  The predominant species is hawthorn but with a mix of various other species including ash and blackthorn, dog rose, field maple, oak and hazel.

Before

After

As you can imagine, cutting it is a big job.  I like to have it trimmed not so early that it will need another major cut before the winter and after the dog roses are over.  July then suits me fine.  I will need to go over it again quickly in the autumn to take off any new, long growth (bramble for example) but otherwise the hedge should now remain fairly crisp right through until next spring.

In the past, we have hired contractors to cut all the hedges at the Priory including the large beech hedge surrounding the house and gardens.  But this year, I’ve decided to do them myself with lots of help from Tim (not his real name), a proper person who helps Margaret out on the farm.  Tim knows all about engines and power tools and fuel mixes and grown up things like that.  Very handy to have around.  I, on the other hand,  know how to switch on a hedge trimmer.  And turn it off again.

Before

After

We spent two long, hot and tiring days together last week cutting the driveway hedge and a few other stretches of mixed hedging about the estate.  The raking up and transporting of all the cuttings to the bonfire site  took up a good chunk of that time.  The petrol hedge trimmers are fairly heavy when you pick them up for the first time but after you’ve been wielding them for several hours they are extraordinarily heavy.  My arms were so unresponsive they felt like they belonged to somebody else.  Though (temporarily at least) I did have biceps like a gibbon.

Before

You get the idea

Whilst trimming, Tim managed to tread on an underground wasp’s nest.  He got stung a dozen times about the head but remarkably didn’t make a huge song and dance about it.
I would have made much, much, much more of a fuss.  Running around in tight circles, flapping my hands about my ears, shrieking – that sort of thing.

A small section of the beech hedging

In early August, we are going to tackle the beech hedging.

The beech hedge is long and in places, twice my height.  Near to the house, it is more formal than the mixed hedging so it needs to be trimmed much more carefully and neatly.  And if we cut off too much we can’t really stick some back on.  Can’t say I’m terribly excited at the prospect.  Seems like it is going to be very hard work and be very, very tiring.  Hmm, getting a little anxious thinking about it actually.  Best not do the thinking.  No, let’s look at some pretty flowers instead.

Eryngium planum and persicaria

Phew.

That’s altogether better.  Pretty flowers.