Saturday, May 20, 2006




There is one garden chore that I am ambivalent about. This is my very long, wrap around, laurel hedge (Prunus lusitanicus). I have been pruning it since 1986. In 1992 I decided to achieve the "Holy Grail" of pruning by using only secateurs (above right). It took me a week. Since then I have found that if I do it now I only have to do it once in the year. I don't use electric hedge clippers as they don't cut off all the leaves or some of the thicker stems. These yellow in a few weeks and the hedge is unsightly. I use hand hedge clippers, which this year I had sharpened. It will take two days of this Victoria Day weekend.