My easy way to pick up hedge clippings!
It’s hedge cutting time again! It doesn’t seem like a year since we were last tackling them. We have a good system though – my husband and younger son do all the cutting with the power tools I’m not entrusted with and I clear up. However, I’ve discovered a less arduous way of picking up the clippings, by running the lawnmower over them. This works on all but the twiggiest stems – with the added benefit that everything’s then shredded ready for the compost heap.
Apart from hedge cutting I love this time of year. The light in the garden is softer and the late-summer flowering plants are coming into their own. Last winter we dug a large bed in the orchard which we filled with perennial helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’, rudbeckia ‘Herbstonne’, phlomis and acanthus, all of which were dug up and moved from another part of the garden. We had to protect the bed with netting after discovering one morning that rabbits had nibbled an ornamental grass down to a stump. This bed is now looking just how we envisaged; the yellow flowers of the helianthus and rudbeckia tower over me and catch the last rays of the evening sun. How satisfying to create something from plants we already had. Discussion is now underway as to whether we create a similar border on the opposite side of the orchard – time to sharpen the spades!
Hydrangeas are my new favourite plants! We bought several cheaply at auction a couple of years ago and are pleased that they’re all doing well. Hydrangea aspera has lovely oval, velvety leaves and purple-mauve flowers, and enjoys a shadier spot protected by a Viburnum tinus. Encouraged by this I’ve just bought H.paniculata ‘Vanille Fraise’ to go in front of the dogwoods.
My Highlight
The myrtle is in full flower with its lovely white pompoms.
Tales from a Country Garden 