hedge cutting (for the forseeable future)

The Systems Administrator got up unusually early, not out of boundless desire to rise to meet the challenges of the day ahead, but because of the sudden onset of backache after turning over in the night.  Three Nurofen and a hot shower later and barely able to get his socks on unaided, the SA slowly and stiffly made his way downstairs for a day of alternating between sitting very carefully on the sofa, walking very carefully round the room, and doing very gentle exercises to try and coax his back out of spasm.

It was a blow on two fronts, firstly because it was extremely painful for the Systems Administrator, and secondly because the Systems Administrator had been going to help with the hedge. Yesterday the SA hauled away trailer loads of woody prunings to the bonfire heap and fed the leafier ones through the shredder, and that helped a lot.  Left to tackle my own mountain of debris as I went along, my progress today along the back of the hedge was even more painfully slow than it would have been anyway.

By lunchtime I had nibbled out one little section of hedge beside the patio.  It did not reach across the full width of the patio, or the full height of the hedge, and looked even smaller and more inadequate from the dining room window than it had when I stood in front of it.  Part of the problem is that in the past I had tucked long, wavering growths back inside the hedge instead of ruthlessly pruning them off.  They have now thickened, lengthened, and produced side shoots, while sagging down in great loops far beyond the point where I should like the outside of the hedge to be.  Disentangling them from the rest of the hedge and extracting them, sometimes in several sections, is taking ages.

I told myself that at least I didn't have to do this along the full length of the hedge, since it has not grown nearly so much on the further section facing the little oak tree, and that once I got beyond the patio I would find I had not tucked in so many wayward growths, and sawing off the spreading branches would be quicker work.  I did speed up after lunch, but there is still an awful lot of hedge to go.  And it drizzled.  It was not supposed to drizzle and I had to cover up the electric shredder just to be on the safe side.

By way of light relief I potted up my remaining seed raised wallflowers into terracotta pots.  The young plants I potted on last week had already begun to overtake the last tray of seedlings that I didn't get round to doing last time.  They were not too pot bound when I tipped them out of their black plastic pots, but definitely not doing as well as the plants with a bigger root run.

There is still some young growth on the basil plants in the greenhouse, so I used some of it to make a herb topping for some baked tomatoes.  You whizz the basil and some breadcrumbs up together and add a little dribble of olive oil.  It was rather nice.  All sorts of things might be improved by the addition of a herb crust.