The edge

There are plenty of things that keep me awake in the early hours of the morning. Work stuff. BEVERLEY stuff. Kid stuff. Blog stuff. House stuff. And something that always niggles at the back of my mind? GARDEN STUFF. You see, we used to live in a teeny tiny terrace house and our back garden consisted of uprooted pavers and lots of pots. They were well tended to and loved pots, but just pots nonetheless. When we moved here Rob and I spent the first year feeling like frauds here. We had this grown up house! With a seriously grown up garden. That required a whole lot of attention. All the time.

Hedges. Hedges people! They require attention. And a lot of it. We have been “managing” them well, but there were some ones down the driveway that were too big for us. I thought about those hedges a lot. More than a hedge probably gets anyone thinking about them. I arranged for people to come, and they let me down. It would get put at the bottom of the to do list, then I’d organise someone only to have them turn up and say they were too big. But then? Well Graeme came. And he and his friend Graeme (Graeme squared) spent 2 and a half days HEDGING. And taking the green stuff away. The sound of the hedge trimmers and the smell of two stroke was like music to my ears.

And now? I have beautiful, manageable hedges again. And I have Graeme’s number. Who knew that could make a girl so happy?

H4 H5 H2 H1 H3 H7 H6

And now I have a new gardening project! Down at Rob’s studio there were some shitty rambling banksia roses that were overgrown and doing nothing except making me worry. So I asked Graeme to take those out, rip the bastards out so I now have fresh garden to bed out! I have visions of a silver birch grove with daffs and bluebells underneath. Can you see it?

H9

There is something to be said for clearing out the shit that clouds your head. What’s your biggest middle of the night ridiculous thing you worry about?

Comments

  1. Alli @ ducks on the dam says

    Mmmmmm hedges. We are still a “house in a paddock” with a handful of river red gums. I have a rosemary hedge on my fence of the vegie garden. But need more. I have a hankering for a lavender hedge…

  2. Cat_BeLoverly says

    These things would make me happy too…but being cut from the same cloth this does not surprise me. I just love your house! Xxx

  3. i would love a silver birch forest….can so see it….trying to talk our kinder in planting a silver birch forest for the littlelins….i love a good hedge, im currently training a bouganvillia (not properly caffeinated enough to spell yet) for a privacy hedge, mixing a purple one and an orange one….hedges rock!

  4. Silver birch forest with blueblls – SWOONING! Do it – I want to see the pictures 🙂 And awesome hedge work BTW!

  5. Gibbergunyah says

    BEEP Banksia Roses, as they are known in our house. Got rid of both of them and we don’t miss them. They’re like naughty two year olds, the minute you turn your back they have their clutches on something they’re not meant to be able to reach.
    There was a beautiful silver birch and bluebell wood at Kennerton Green. I say go for it! Alderwood nursery are good and the Van Diemen bulb catalogue is your friend.
    Our hedges were planted a year ago and are still not trimmed due to new baby and one year old. At least that’s my excuse. I used to think I wanted acreage, but until we can manage our 1/4 acre to a point where it doesn’t cause insomnia we’re not ready for a real grown up garden.
    BTW Would the Graemes come to Bowral?

  6. We spent a weekend trimming our gigantic conifer hedge ourselves! SO glad that jobs done, what a nightmare! And yes, we slept sooo much better after the damn thing was done. We have done it ourselves for the last 10 years but they have grown so huge that next time I might email you for Graeme’s number! I do all the box hedges around the garden myself, an achievement I’m very proud of!
    Doesn’t take much to keep me awake at night worrying.
    We’ve had a little silver birch grove but they are fussy trees and all of them died which was very sad!

  7. mary_j_j says

    My in-laws hedge back in England was something to behold. It had been spreading for quite some time, and in it from the upstairs windows you could see all sorts of things that would never have been reclaimable – tennis balls and suchlike. It was magnificent!. Oh, and the lines in the lawn that they had were superb, we could never grow nor maintain a lawn like that. Enjoy that big garden of yours!!

  8. my garden guy is a graeme too!!! although it might be graham… close enough!

  9. MotherDownUnder says

    I have temporarily given up on my garden.
    My zucchini which had beautiful flowers just withered and died. And the chooks have scratched up all my strawberries. The weeds are doing wonderfully though and keeping everything looking green.
    Lately what has been keeping me up is how I am going to keep a certain two year old entertained on the flight to New York. Fingers crossed they have Peppa Pig on the inflight entertainment!

  10. Lisa Mckenzie says

    Yes I can see that new garden already ,it is beautiful.Hmm middle of the night ridiculous things I worry about,I am ashamed to say housework,I know dumb ,What I am cooking for dinner and the newest one new boots where can I find comfy tan ankle boots,when the morning comes these thought go away I should put them in a box and lock them away at night before bed,I also worry about my children and parents and everybody except me.
    Btw the hedges look awesome my son is a landscaper and if you buy a hedger and if you want to you could keep them like that by yourself ,just do it often xx

  11. I am the wise guy that insisted on hedges at our house but I didnt expect to have to maintain them. my husband gave me a hedgetrimmer for my birthday a few years ago – i was very tempted to shove that thing up his ass. I have NEVER used it, on principal.

  12. Reannon Hope says

    How big is your block of land Beth, if you don’t mind me asking? It looks bloody huge & I am eternally jealous of all the green! Living in dry, brown Perth I miss the green of the east coast something fierce…
    Biggest middle of the night worry? That the mice ( god I hope they are mice & not rats cause if they’re rats I’m moving!) I can hear running in the roof will stick their head out of the A/C vent & come get me. Stupid I know but I have an irrational fear of mice & we get them all the time living in a semi rural area & I can’t bloody stand them !!!

  13. This week I employed a gardener. It was not without angst, after all I really wanted to do it ALL myself…. you know…. the perfect garden done with my own hands!
    But….it has been the best thing I have ever done. My gardener is perfect. In no time at all she has transformed my garden into what I had envisaged. Thank goodness you also found the perfect gardener Beth.
    I have been following you blog for such a long time. I love who you are and what you write about. Keep up the good work……without the stress!!

  14. I lived in a very posh suburb in Auckland for 18 months which was full of old money and hedges. I nearly lost my mind. All that buzzing, trimming and manicuring followed by the leaf blowers. I was pregnant then a new mum and I’ve got a hedge phobia since.

  15. Well outsourced that woman, lovely photos of that trimmed hedge. I worry about keeping things trimmed neatly, but not hedges. When is my hubby getting home again??

  16. Gah! We have an awesome neighbour who does ours for us. I know, totally spoiled.

Leave a Reply to MotherDownUnder Cancel reply

*