Half A Hedge Haircut

As can be seen above, a Spring growth spurt has caused our hedges to become rather unruly! I could well have trimmed them well before now, however I was keen to avoid clipping before a possible frost. Not sure it entirely matters but wanted to make sure. That and simply being run off my feet has prevented me from addressing before yesterday. Even so I have still only managed to cut back half of them! Will try to finish off the rest this afternoon, Peter duties permitting ;-)

So the half that have been trimmed look a little better ;-)

Although, the first time I get the hedge trimmer out I always have the tendency to cause an over zealous gash in one or two places in the hedge! Oh well, it's nothing that'll do any harm and it'll grow back ;-) Peter be warned if I ever have to give you a haircut! You would do well in asking Mum to give you a haircut before I have a go! I am not entirely sure if hedge trimmers should be used to cut children's hair. Are you reading this Peter? Possibly not yet, but when you do you can see why it would be better to get Mum to give you a mop chop!

Our hedges have really suffered in the past, and even this year there are plants that appear to be dying out. Consequently part of the process of hedge maintenance also includes taking cuttings. Below are my late Summer cuttings from last year. Unbelievably these four survived the Winter which surprises me as they were particularly neglected. I really did very little to look after them through the December snow and cold. That is apart from look at them once in a while and feel sorry for them! That aside they made it through and are going great guns!

I repotted these about a month ago. As it turns out I think the pots they have been put in are far too big. According to Gardeners' World repotting should happen through stages and you should not simply take from a very small pot and put a cutting in a much larger pot. The process should be gradual and go through a number of increasingly larger pots, that are just slightly bigger form the last. Well I only saw this in a recent episode so I didn't do this! Oh well lets see what happens. I have another cutting that is 2 years old now that seems to be going fine so I hope these will as well.

Yesterday I planted 6 more cuttings, but want to get many more going. Will add some more prior to the next hedge trim. Yesterdays cuttings are below

I don't really do anything special with my cuttings. I cut them, trim back a few of the lower leaves and plant them in a cutting fertisliser. That's it. It worked last year so lets see if it works this year! I also took cutting's of different sizes this year. Lets see what works best if any and then repeat. I will let you know later what works out best.

Well Mon is now out the door so I had better sign off and make sure that Peter isn't playing with the hedge trimmer! This baby sitter lark is easy! ;-)

Have fun

m