Despite the gardener’s best efforts and attentions, there comes a time in the life of every hedge when it has outgrown its allotted space.

For some slow-growing hedge plants, like yew, clipped hard once a year, it may take 20 years for this to happen. Other, faster growing species, like leylandii or privet, may reach the point of no return in as little as three or four years.

You know the feeling – it’s too tall to reach from your steps, or too wide to clip the whole of the top comfortably. A hedge that’s difficult to cut is no longer a pleasure and can even be dangerous.

Although it has been clipped regularly twice a year, the small length of Lonicera hedge in our back garden had somehow grown from five feet tall to seven in the space of just a few years. The weight of the extra two feet (or possibly the weight of the ladder we had to lean against it in order to reach the top) had started it leaning outwards in an ungainly, drunken sort of way.

There was nothing for it but a severe haircut as you can see from the photograph.

It’s possible to apply this harsh treatment to hedges because they are generally made up of plants that respond well to being cut back into the old wood. The trick is to cut back one side (or top) at a time, allowing that side to recover before attacking the next. If you were to cut back the whole hedge at one time, removing all the foliage, the plants might well suffer and would certainly take much longer to recover.

This is a technique that can be applied not only to Lonicera but also to beech, yew, privet, holly, hornbeam and box.

On a completely different note, here is an idea I came across recently for anyone who has suffered from carrot fly attacking their carrots.

Carrot flies lay their eggs in the soil, the resulting larvae tunnel into developing carrots, rendering them inedible and quick to rot in storage. Apparently the female flies travel very close to the ground, following the scent of carrot foliage, so the traditional method of keeping them at bay is to put up a physical barrier around the carrots, usually horticultural fleece or fine netting.

Here is a decorative alternative - growing carrots in raised beds constructed of woven willow panels and filled with a mixture of garden compost and soil. Since the carrots are above ground level, the flies can’t smell them and, as an added bonus, the deep beds should mean long, straight carrots.

Jobs for the weekend...

Now that bedding and half-hardy perennials are planted out, this could be a good time to clean out the greenhouse and cold frames.

Summer prune plums and cherries, shortening shoots by about one third. On large trees, spread the pruning over a few weeks so that the trees don’t suffer a check in growth.

Clear around the base of trees and shrubs planted in grass, leaving a generous circle free of grass and weeds around the base. This will reduce competition for water and nutrients.