6th July 2015

I've been clipping topiary morning, noon and night. I don't mind at all - in fact, I love it. 

I love the smell of the first cut. Every plant smells different when it is clipped. Yew smells sweet, box smells at once sharp and musky and lonicera smells.....planty. 

I love the artistry and the chance to express myself in a way that is different entirely to any other sculptural practice or horticultural practice (not that I've ever tried bonsai ~ I'm not sure I fancy bonsai ~ it seems a little odd).

I love dangling precariously, higher than the ladder will go - one foot on the highest rung, the other kicked behind me in some strange clumpy-booted ballet move. 

I love standing back and trying to be objective about the 'cutting edge' (ha ha, groan) decisions I have made with my shears. 

.......and I love my shears. 

They are new, they are precious and they are treated like royalty......although I am not sure that the Queen is sprayed liberally with WD40 before being put to bed......hang on, have I just stumbled upon her secret?

I have just finished my own home topiary. Mature lonicera nitida hedges have been seriously attacked. 

I couldn't make up my mind about the ultimate, finished look ('finished' will probably be in at least 3 years) so the 3 sections of hedge will have 3 different aesthetics. 

The 1st hedge is formal. A hint of a buttress, smoothly clipped, straight sides and a level top crowned with (what will eventually be) pom poms.....or snails or curled up cats or Axl Rose in bust form.....

The 2nd hedge has a quirkier (for want of a better word) concept. I want it to look like a row of terraced houses but each house has a different architectural design. I want the end result to look a little like Diagon Alley.....and if you don't know of the alley to which I refer.....poor, poor you. 

The 3rd hedge lends itself nicely to cloud hedging. - I hope that in a couple of years it will look billowing and tranquil not like I just attacked it with careless abandon. 

I have told my husband that if any of the 3 hedges look awful in a year I will change them. 

And therein lies the beauty of topiary - you can change it. It is like living play dough.