Hedging my bets

I hate to keep harping on the hedges, but they are a big part of our property, surrounding us on all four sides. They grow every year and need to be kept under control or they'll get very unruly very quickly. They are very tall, about seven feet at their tallest, and very wide.

The tallest and longest section of hedge separates our back yard from the road. The grass is still very brown.

Many of you know that I used to do this myself. It took a couple of weeks, and I teetered on a ladder to do the tops. Then one year I delayed trimming (I hurt my neck painting the attic loft) and when I finally got around to doing it, the stems had thickened considerably. I proceeded to hurt my back bending and reaching and forcing the trimmer through the thicker stems.  I realized that the job was bigger than I could handle any more (I ain't gettin' any younger), and we hired a landscaper to do it the following year.

Another section of the tall hedge seen from kitchen window.

Now the landscaper does them every year. One year I asked him to cut a significant portion of the hedge down to a more manageable height. I've kept it tall along the road, but the lower height elsewhere has improved our views out to the vineyards and opened up parts of the yard to more light. Plus, it takes less time and effort for the landscaper to trim the lower sections.

The hedge along the north side is made of hazelnut trees, cut down to size to form a hedge.

The other benefit of having the contractor do the work is that his crew rakes up and carts away the trimmings. That's something that Ken and I did ourselves before. It was always a challenge to get rid of them; some of them went into our compost pile, some got burned, and some just got dumped in the nearby woods where they naturally decomposed. If we had a trailer (like so many people seem to around here) we could have loaded them up and taken them to the dump. But we don't.

The now shortened back hedge, seen from outside our yard. It used to be twice as tall.

So, I'm very happy that we found this landscaper. His crew does a great job and they're friendly and efficient. Last year they pruned our apple trees, and I know there are other jobs we'll be asking them to do over the coming years in addition to the annual hedge trimming. In fact, one of the guys will be assembling our new greenhouse later this month.