the final cut

I have finally finished cutting the eleagnus hedge along the drive.  I think.  It still looks ragged and uneven, and bald, but it will do, until it grows again and I can give the regrowth a trim.  If it does regrow.  Tiny shoots are breaking on the bare branches at the end where I started, a hopeful sign, but in the meantime there is no point in trying to even up every cut twig to give a level face.  I will keep squinting along it from both ends and every angle, in case I suddenly see a lumpy bit that's going to stick out too far into the drive as it grows, but in the meantime it is officially done. Tomorrow the Systems Administrator will help me cart away the trailer full of prunings for the last time, and move the Henchman off the turning circle.

I am heartily relieved to have finished for now.  It turned into a monster job that seemed to go on for ever.  Practically did go on for ever, given that I started in early September and have been at it ever since, apart from one week when we were on holiday.  Each time I did any other gardening task I felt vaguely guilty that I ought to have been getting on with the hedge.

I've finished cutting back the brambles by the entrance as well, which means that next week I can order some gravel, and the delivery driver might stand a sporting chance of being able to get the lorry into the garden instead of having to leave the bags at the gate.  I found some large and useful stones under the brambles, not ones picked up out of the soil but big ones bought at a garden centre, which I'd completely forgotten were there.  They can be redeployed around the middle of the circle to encourage vehicles to stick to the drive, now I've reduced the hedge and given them an extra yard of room.

I cleaned out the hen house as well, and am positively glowing with virtue at having ticked two tasks off the list.  And that is all there's going to be about today's gardening, because the Blogger website is playing up, and it's taken me a good half hour to get this far.