hedge and garden

starlight09

We lost the majority of our garden hedgeing (oleary) and plants when we got the two years of heavy frost. We are since replanting it. We sat elaeagnus ebbingei as a hedge for a border as we need the shelter, we planted the odd shrub here and there in front of it. I would love to fill the area with plants and colour and have those curved areas along by the lawn that you see in books but if I do that I won't have access to the hedgeing. My question is, can we just leave the hedgeing grow without topping it. Advice greatly appreciated.

Lumen

Whatever about the top and back, presumably the front of the hedge will need trimming.

You can use something like this to access a hedge that's behind a bed.

starlight09

Thank you Luman. That's a serious piece of equipment. I could do a lot of work with that, painting, cleaning gutters, power hozing, the list goes on.

starlight09

Thank you Luman. That's a serious piece of equipment. I could do a lot of work with that, painting, cleaning gutters, power hozing, the list goes on.

my3cents

Easiest and quite safe way of cutting hedges is with a suitable length of wooden ladder (hard to come by nowadays) and sheet of plywood.

I used to use a sheet of 4ft x 6ft nailed to the top of a wooden ladder. Just lean it against the hedge and off you go with the pressure of the ladder taken against the large area of the plywood sheet you don't fall through the hedge.

If I was to have to use an aluminium ladder then I'd use U bolts and large washers to hold the plywood sheet in place.

starlight09

That's another good idea as the hedge is overgrown and hard to reach

starlight09

That's another good idea as the hedge is overgrown and hard to reach