Heinous Hedging

I wanted to talk about the art of hedging and what I have learnt about the subject.  Over the last 4 to 5 years I have been shaping and reshaping a hedge that spans the width of my property along the edge of the driveway.  It’s has been an ongoing project that I have constantly needed to rethink and redo. 

In the early stages of the hedge’s growth I let it do it’s own thing and waited till it had grown large enough to start shaping.  This tactic didn’t work well at all in fact it was horrible.  It looked nothing like a hedge, instead, it resembled, more accurately a number of sickly looking shrubs bunched into a line.  The lower parts of the plants had no leafy growth at all.  Most of the growth was localised at the very top of the plant.  I quickly realised that the hedge needed more constant attention. 

My second attempt to form a neat and bushy hedge had improved results.  I now knew that in order to get growth all over the plant, particularly the bottom, I needed to keep the plants short.  So I bit the bullet and pruned the bushes right back down to the base getting rid of all the initial growth.  It felt like a big waste and I know my mum can never bring herself to be that brutal but it had to be done.  I kept them short until they had thickened then slowly let them grow taller.  I made sure that the growth was even with no gaps by giving the plant time to fill into its shape as it got taller.  Eventually the hedge reached the desired height of about a metre. 

After a week of having the hedge at this height I noticed that there were large gaps starting to appear in the sides of the hedge.  I couldn’t understand why this was happening.  I had allowed the hedge to slowly grow and fill out.  I decided to research the plant and see how it had been grown in other gardens.  After looking at similar hedges I realised that I had grown mine too wide.  I had let the hedge grow out about a metre thick and as a result the plants were too small to sustain that amount of localised foliage.  The stress of this caused them to start loosing branches as a way of surviving.

So, again, I had to savagely attack the hedge in order to achieve the fullness I was after.  I took around a quarter off both slides of the hedge.  By now the plants had obviously established a well-formed root system as they bounced back impressively from their prune.  The hedge quickly thickened up at the side and there was no presence of any gaps.

Although I don’t like to do everything via mapped out instructions when it comes to gardening it definitely pays to do some research.  A lot of time and effort could have been put to better use if I had put a little time into researching the plant I was using and its growth habits.  Then again some people, like myself, have a lot of fun using the trial and error method.   

Autumn Mess

There are so many reasons why I love and hate autumn.  I love it for the beautiful display the trees put on.  The vibrant reds, oranges and yellows in contrast with one another really transform the streets.  And the lasting warmth of the sun shining through the colourful leaves creates a very homely and reassuring atmosphere. 

These reassured feelings, however, are short lived.  The warmth that filled me with fondness quickly turns to bitter cold and the trees with their beautiful leaf displays turn to dark and twisted figures, their contrast against the dull sky gives them an almost menacing appearance.  Even with all the joys of early autumn I harbour an unsettled feeling that with it brings the insidious cold of winter. 

Most of the trees in my neighbourhood, especially my street (Plane Trees), are deciduous so the lovely autumn colours turn, yearly, to a big leaf mess.  There are leaves everywhere.  The roof and gutters need constant clearing to prevent drainage issues.  The lawns need to be constantly raked to avoid turf death.  The water tanks need to be cleaned to stop them filling up with leaf litter.

As I have noted in my previous blogs, I love to mulch and this is the perfect solution to the autumn dump.  Every year I get out the Greenfield mulcher and make light work of autumn’s not so welcome offering. For me mulching is becoming the solution to all of life’s problems. 

My Local Parks and Gardens

Having lived in the same house all my life, the parks and gardens around my home have played a significant part in my life.  From when my dad used to take me for walks with our dogs when I was young to kicking the footy with my mates, local parks and gardens have become very important to me. 

Reed Gardens is less than a kilometre from my home; it’s a smaller park with the dimensions of 90m by 170m situated next to the main train line. It’s a great place to come and sit, although there is a small playground, most of the time it is very peaceful and quiet. 

Reed Gardens has tall, beautiful, old oak trees mixed with flowerbeds of colourful annuals and neatly maintained lawns.   This lush canopy coupled with the elegant Victorian and Edwardian houses which surround it, gives a timeless quality to the garden.  I also get warm, reassured feeling when I see the garden’s water tank, knowing that precious tap water isn’t being wasted.

Brinsley Nature Reserve, a 2-minute walk from my house, is another lovely but vastly different space to Read Gardens.  It is a much larger area, almost double the size, with dimensions of 125 metres by 225 metres.  It doesn’t have manicured flowerbeds or finely kept lawns or organised tree lines.  Instead it has randomly space trees among long, unkempt grass and no shrub or flower plantings. 

This area serves more for dog walking than a peaceful place to come and visit.  It perhaps isn’t as popular as Read Gardens and certainly isn’t as child friendly.  Despite the lack of money and effort put into this particular park I still have a great fondness for it.  I used to frequently come to Brinsley to muck around with my mates when I was a kid, kicking the footy and climbing the trees.  It some how gave me a sense of adventure, giving the feeling that we could possibly be in the woods somewhere.        

Although I can see the added advantages of well thought out designs in gardens such as Read Gardens I also find a lot of value in more naturally preserved parks such as Brinsley.  Especially in a highly populated area such as Camberwell I hope that both types of green spaces are maintained and also created as I think they provide a wealth of value to the community.