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Around the garden
including:-
We start with a couple of pictures of our Eucryphia (below), just before its flowering
peak in mid-August. It was originally a cutting (from Thelma), planted about 15yrs ago,
and is now about 20ft tall, and for many years it didn't flower at all, but this year is
the best I can remember (probably due to low frost and other chills which kill off the
buds in spring).
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A couple of Clemetis varieties... |
...in our back garden |
The new fence (wow, don't we have an exciting time here...)
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Prior to major pruning this year, the hedge grew right
out past the pile of stone setts in the foreground |
When we moved here in 1985 there was a sensible sized laurel
hedge along the border down the side of our house, leaving just about enough room to get a
vehicle between it and the garage, should we have ever needed to do so.
It's not the sort of thing you can cut with a hedge-trimmer, like privet, because the
leaves are too big, but we did try to give it an annual pruning back. Over the years it
grew, albeit slowly, both upwards and outwards, such that the space at the side of the
house became both darker and smaller. This year I decided it was going to have a very
major pruning so that when it grew back and thickened up it would not be half way across
to our house like it was before. Unfortunately, because they've hardly pruned it at all on
the other side, it's about 10ft wide on their side, and removing the leaves and small
branches on our side left holes you could easily walk through. Not good for security, so
they suggested we have a fence, which we agreed to as long as it didn't have wooded posts,
because all the fences around us which have wooden posts have rotted and are only held up
by the plants on either side. |
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And so after a few quotes and false starts we ended up with this design
with galvanised steel posts and treated timber boards 2 Metres tall which starts on our
side of the border (down the side of the house) and ends up going through the middle of
the hedge as it gets to the front of our house. There was going to be a step in it in the
original plans, as the difficult bit was always going to be dodging the existing trunks
and branches, but once they started they found a line straight through the middle, which
works really well. Although it looks pretty decimated at the front, I'm quite sure the
laurel is well enough established (from past experience) to regrow and substantially cover
the fence at the front of the house. We also saved a post and some timber by taking the
direct line, so one of my projects for the coming year is to add a perpendicular section,
maybe with a gate, coming out towards the front corner of the garage. We'll have to see if
it makes it into next year's site... |
Good progress by the end of day one |
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Before and after... |
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... above and below |
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Hopefully it will start to grow back... |
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... and cover some of the fence here at the front |
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