Healing Hedges

The boys started at 7.30 to get to this stage when I arrived an hour later

There are magnificent twin yew hedges along the main borders at Norton Conyers, the rich dark green foliage acts as a perfect foil to all the colourful perennials that display throughout the year. Taxus bacata is not just a good evergreen hedge however, the new growth contains a cancer busting chemical that the medical industry use to produce drugs, and our task yesterday was to trim the hedges and collect the clippings to sell to that industry. Thankfully the boys were in charge of the actual cutting, not a job I would relish perched up a ladder with a heavy petrol trimmer in hand, that meant I was barrow monkey for the day. I'm not sure how many trips I made out to the car park where the bags were sitting, but I reckon it was a fair distance and a fair weight I carried. At the end of the day when the clippings were collected and weighed they amounted to half a tonne, a pretty exhausting days work, thank goodness it only happens once a year!

"Love your neighbour, yet don't pull down your hedge" Benjamin Franklin