Daily details from the garden to bring you inspiration throughout the year
Hawthorn and dog rose all looking healthy. Viburnum beetle has been making a meal of the wayfaring tree (Viburnum lantana). The brambles, which act as hedgerow glue, carry on regardless.
The hedge was planted just after we moved in, just a long row of twigs then – mostly hawthorn, but some beech, dog rose, hazel, one wayfaring tree and a european spindle. And a bit of blackthorn for the sloes and also, as we were soon to discover, for the ridiculously hard to pull out runners that it likes to shoot up all over the place. It’s almost a mini hedgerow in our garden, that stretch of mixed native trees and shrubs, the little line of sticks now a solid barrier regularly reaching ten feet high. I like to keep it a couple of feet lower than that, but if there’s one thing our hedge likes to do, it’s grow. I went out today, shears in hand, and snipped away happily at the back of the border. Often I’ll throw the machines at it, but that seems a bit too much like work. Clipping by hand feels more like a conversation with the garden.
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Hello! I’m Andrew, gardener, writer, photographer, and owner of a too-loud laugh, and I’m so pleased you’ve found your way to Gardens, weeds & words. You can read a more in-depth profile of me on the About page, or by clicking this image.