I have finally started on the terrifying task of reducing the Eleagnus hedge. It is terrifying for two reasons, firstly that there is so much of it that after the first couple of hours' work I didn't seem to have made any appreciable progress at all, and felt as though it were going to take all the time between now and when we go on holiday to finish it, and secondly because I am worried that my ministrations will kill it. But as the Systems Administrator reminded me, it can't stay as it is, so the choice is between attempting to reduce it and giving up and removing it completely.
According to my spreadsheet of things planted in the garden, the hedge is now twenty years old. The first planting was in 1994, though some plants had to be replaced. They were pitifully slow to join up and form a continuous line of foliage, which is the essential ingredient of a hedge, and for several years you could walk through the gaps and get a clear view of the weed suppressing woven landscape fabric around them. We had some very dry summers in the mid 1990s, and were dependent on well water at the time. However, eventually they did that thing that shrubs do, and began to grow bigger than we could possibly have imagined when they were freshly planted, tiny and puny.
We both tried to keep the hedge back to its ideal line, but year by year it got slightly fatter. Eleagnus x ebbingei makes a terrific amount of annual growth. If you cut all the new growth off, to take it back to where it was last year, you end up with a deeply unattractive, bald, twiggy face, and the plants look desperately stressed at having lost all of their new leaves. It is very difficult not to end up leaving just an inch or two of the fresh twigs, to cover the old wood and the evidence of previous cuts. Year by year the hedge got bigger. Last year we took off everything we could, short of going hard back into old wood, and the oil delivery driver just managed to squeeze in. I knew then that come 2014 I was going to have to bite the bullet.
Growing conditions this year, with rain and then warmth, have really brought the hedge on, and delivery drivers have been having to edge off the tarmac and on to the central turning circle. It's all covered in gravel, so they may notice that they're driving over plants, although they don't really have an alternative, but they won't know that the wheels on one side aren't even on tarmac, but simply earth. I do know, and it worries me, in case come really wet weather a van suddenly sinks to its axle at one corner. We have to reclaim the drive. And we are not going to be able have another delivery of heating oil until we've opened up the access.
I meant to cut the hedge in August, having failed to do so in the spring. The Systems Administrator had a plan to tackle it straight after the Cheltenham Festival, but other things crowded it off the agenda, and the weeks of endless rain didn't help. Then the bird nesting season started, and we didn't dare disturb it. August was so hot and humid that it didn't get done then. I'm not sure that September is the ideal time to cut an evergreen hard back. Consensus opinion at last night's party on whether it would be a good idea to cut yew hard now, or leave it until March, was to hold off until the spring. But by next March the postman will be struggling to make his way round the turning circle, and if spring comes early then we'll be back to the problem of bird nests. It has got to come off now.
I'm taking it back by around four feet on one side only, which means removing all of this year's growth and going into the old wood. The resulting face looks hideous, but I will scarcely see it, since all my attention will be focussed on whether there are signs of new shoots, or if branches are starting to die back. The Systems Administrator did cut one end of it that hard last year, where it was starting to block the way round to the patio (or terrace) and it responded very well, after a nerve racking hiatus. But I am worried. Twenty years is a good age for Eleagnus x ebbingei according to the books, and it wouldn't be a surprise if odd plants in the hedge started randomly dying anyway.
If I had known in 1994 what I know now, I'd have planted yew, or hornbeam, and had a hedge that was good for the next century and more. And which didn't litter the gravel with large, leathery dead leaves throughout the year. As it is I have maintenance monster that's poised to die of old age. And yet I shall really miss the hedge when it goes. It is a key structural feature, providing the back garden with privacy and the front garden with shelter from the south westerlies. And digging out the roots will be a nightmare. In fact, I should think we'll have to hire a digger, when the awful time comes. Ah well, learning by doing. But I would say to anybody out there, who is thinking about planting a hedge and hankers after a quick result, just plant yew and be patient for a few years. A decade hence you'll be pleased that you did, and after twenty years you'll be delighted.
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