Little hedges


For a few years one end of our property (and the neighbours’) have been flooded in winter due to clogged drains in the fields. Most have been fixed, but eventually most of our hedges way up in the garden died because they were standing with their feet in the water followed by two very frosty winters.
So this summer we’re working on a new drain all the way from the garden to the low end of the farm where the big new drain is running. No point in getting a new hedge if the garden is a swamp 6 months out of 12! But the garden is much too windy without one. A hedge that is.

It’ll probably be a couple of years (they say) before we see the actual effect, so in the mean time I’ve decided to make new hedges, using what we already have, spiraea and ribes. For the lilacs I’ll have to see if any of them have sent out shoots that I can dig up and nurse a bit in a pot. I think I’m a bit late in the season to use cuttings?

Now only remains to be seen if I can actually remember to nurse them all through the winter…. At least if we don’t get frost, I have a self-watering greenhouse!

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Temporary home while the digger recuperates