Wednesday, September 28, 2011

A hedge trimming update

I've actually finished with the hedge trimming. There's still the cleanup to do, but the long hedge is finally trimmed. I also have to trim the tall bay leaf tree. That's a whole 'nother can of worms. But the big job is done.

This more or less before. I had trimmed the inside of the hedge, but not the top or the outside.

These are photos of the longest stretch of hedge along the road. It goes from the house to the end of the property and around to the back gate.

Now I've done the top on the inside. The hedge is too wide for me to reach across from one side.

I took pictures, as I always try to do, of the before, during, and after trimming. I hope you appreciate how much fun I have doing this. I've decided that the only way to make it tolerable is to divide it into sections and celebrate as each section gets done.

And now this section is completely done. Except for the cleanup, of course.

And that is precisely what I do. I calculated (thanks to my spreadsheet) that I worked on the hedge for a total of eight days. Over those eight days, I worked ten and three-quarter hours. If you've done the math, you can see that it works out to an average of one and one-third hours per day. But hey, I'm retired. I can take my time, right?

That is a six-foot ladder... six inches taller than me. So you can see how tall that darned hedge is.

I was very lucky this year that the weather has been spectacular during the hedge trimming season. No cold, no rain, no wind. Just nice sunny days and me working in a t-shirt. Very pleasant. Thanks for sticking with me! Remember, I have to do this again next year.

11 comments:

  1. I'm hedging my bets that you'll get Ken to do the clean-up!!!!

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  2. Do you have particular rewards to yourself when you are celebrating the completion of each section Walt? I don't know, taking the rest of the day off, a glass or two of your favourite wine, an extra walk with Callie?
    Also, I see nothing wrong with your approach of doing some of a task each day, and doing it well. Surely one of the (many) benefits of being retired is having TIME, something which is vastly under-rated in today's money-obsessed world.

    Catherine

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  3. Do you set aside money for ladders, clippers, loppers, etc? That would be - wait for it - a hedge fund (ta dump dummm...)

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  4. I've always thought of you as being taller.

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  5. Are you using a hedge trimmer machine or using the cutter in the photo?

    Electric Hedge Trimmer would make the job much easier to do.

    Claire from Brisbane QLD

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  6. I think it would take years to trim the hedge if you used only that contraption leaning on the barbecue! LOL

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  7. Have you ever considered just letting the hedge look natural without the cement-block look?

    Just a thought.

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  8. judy, thanks!

    leon, lol! We'll both we working on it.

    catherine, oh yes. Wine, definitely!

    john, you crack me up!

    starman, yeah, me too. But reality is otherwise.

    claire, I use an electric trimmer with an 80cm blade. I'm not that much of a masochist. ;)

    chm, for sure! I did use those loppers to cut the branches that got too thick for the electric trimmer.

    mary, heavens no! It gets too wild and leggy if you let it go. French gardening is all about controlling nature and trimming shrubs into unnatural shapes. I'm just doing my share!

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  9. Excellent job on the hedge! You rock!

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  10. Bravo ! Félicitations !

    Bises

    Mary

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