I trimmed my only box hedge today. The traditional date for cutting box used to be Derby day which was a month ago, but I took a chance with mine and gave it a haircut back in the spring, because it was looking so whiskery. Today's trim was just a tidying up operation to improve the profile, and slim it down slightly. We don't have much formal hedging, as neither of us want to spend ages cutting it, and I am not temperamentally suited to looking after anything too formal, as I so much dislike cutting all the new growth off my shrubs that my topiarised shapes tend to grow fatter and rounder with age.
However I'm fond of this little hedge, which is just large enough for me to play at being Edward Scissorhands without being so big it is a chore to cut. It was set out using small young plants from 9cm pots, and for its first few years I trimmed the straggly bits with secateurs and dropped the prunings straight into a bucket. Now it is bushy I cut it with shears. My current pair are by the manufacturer Fiskars. I bought them in B&Q because we had run out of Bulldog ones in the shop at work, and my old ones had become so useless I wanted a pair that actually cut for immediate use. In fact the Fiskars shears are very nice. They are light, they have a wishbone handle that gives a comfortable action, and they have stayed sharp for a long time. I catch the prunings on a large plastic sack and they go on the compost heap.
I rounded off the top edges of the hedge to give a softer shape, because I thought that looked more appropriate for this garden, where almost everything else is curved. Also, it is easier to cut when you are not very good at precise geometry. I like hedges with level tops and razor sharp corners in the right setting, but don't fancy trying to maintain one myself, and the hedge before today's cut was neither quite square nor convincingly rounded. I have seen box cut to a sharp ridge to discourage water from lying on the top and so prevent box blight, but box blight has not been an issue here so far. I don't know if that is simple good luck, or if the fact that the garden is rather windy and airy helps. There have been a few suspicious patches of dieback on the sides of the hedge, but since they occur at exactly the height of the rear end of a domestic cat I suspect scent marking was the culprit. Also, box cut just before the weather turns very hot and sunny can scorch badly, and frost can burn freshly cut stems. The RHS website has a helpful page on box blight, if you are worried you might have it in your garden.
Addendum As an avid consumer of media I have been gripped by the phone tapping scandal. I'm not particularly surprised that some more really vile stuff has emerged, given that ever since the Met said thay they had looked into it and there was nothing to worry about there has been a constant drip-drip of disgruntled celebrities and politicians turning out to have been hacked. There used to be a fund managers' adage to sell shares on the first profits warning, the reasoning being that the bad news never comes out all in one go, and there are almost certainly more unwelcome announcements in the pipeline. I don't see that either of the past editors have a leg to stand on. They were in charge. They should have known. It is very difficult to imagine that they did not know, and if so they were culpably negligent and useless not to have known. Actually, the excuse that it only happened while one of them was on holiday, the implication being that when she was there it was all squeaky clean and tickety-boo, is quite funny. I've worked in more organisations than would have been wise if I were concentrating on the value of my pension and I know that the culture in a firm comes from the top. My last firm exuded a sort of solid decency, and the managing director was somebody who saw no reason to stop wearing his anorak, just because he now drove a Porsche, and sent the staff home at 4.30pm on Fridays because family life was important. The senior management of a previous employer were arrogant and shouty, and believed that rules were for little people. They were later caught out by a rogue trader and went bust. Like I said, culture comes from the top.
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