Wednesday, June 15, 2011

I Need A Hedge Fund

Back in the day (I know, I know) when I bought this house, it came with a hedge twixt my front garden and the garden of my neighbour who, not entirely unnaturally, lived next door. That made my house a semi detached property as opposed to a detached property which isn't joined to anything, apart from a larger mortgage !

As the years and decades and even centuries passed by, this hedge grew as fast upwards as my savings plummeted downwards. Oh and as is a hedge's nature, it went outwards too. Now and again it was trimmed but over the past decade, even a professional basketball player couldn't have levelled the top of it even using a seriously long ladder.

Maybe that was the problem. He should've used a trimmer !

Month by month my front view was being diminished. Well unless I wanted a view of the hedge that is. It would blot out the sun (ha ! what sun) to such an extent that I never saw it till after 7pm every evening by which time, it was blushing a deep red and thinking seriously about setting.

I didn't want it trimmed as that would still involve costs every year to keep it trimmed and I try to avoid ongoing costs whenever possible. So something had to be done and despite my lovely neighbours not wanting to chip in, I decided it had to go. I knew that the end of the hedge closest to my house 'contained' a sizeable tree of some sort so a normal hedge removal company wouldn't be able to deal with it. Luckily my friend Daphne recommended a company that had removed several of her trees recently (with her permission I hasten to add) and so I arranged for them to come this morning and do their thing.

Before they arrived, I took the opportunity to photograph the hedge in all its awesomeness to remind myself what the bugger looked like before its demise and here are those photos...........






Then the A team moved in and started the demolition job........




This one reminded me of Fargo for some reason. It's ok though, no one was hurt in the making of this photo.


This one gives a good idea what the hedge was like. A man could get lost in there and actually the guys found 3 tennis balls, one golf ball and a set of bones in there. I'm not asking questions but I'm sure next door had twins at some point !

As I was in a movie thinking mood, this image reminded me of Field Of Dreams when the old baseball players walk into the tall corn stalks and simply fade away.



With the greenery removed, I was amazed to see that not one but 4 'trees' had been hidden within the hedge. Of course this is maybe what a nude hedge looks like...what do I know. Anyway within seconds, these trunks were removed faster than you could say "nudist beach."



And this is what was left.........





As you can see from the last photo, the stumps remain and all in all it looks a bit unsightly......open but unsightly. So with the power of Photoshop lets go forward a few weeks when hopefully the grass will cover most of the gap between our gardens.



Then a flower border can be created to show the division line between our properties and that will look a lot better than the dreaded hedge.

So now I'm looking out the window and for the first time in 28 years I'm looking at a wonderful view - of my neighbour's other hedge !

Oh well they have asked for the business card of the A team so maybe one day that hedge will go too and at last I'll be able to see into the window of her at No.17.

I've seen her washing line so I KNOW it will be worth the wait !

3 comments:

  1. That hedge had ambition. I'd heard it muttering to itself "Quick, let's turn into a forest before he notices!". But Hah! Silverback 1: 0 Hedge.
    Some flowers along the middle might be good, I agree. Little ones. And I think it looks much better alrady. Hurrah!

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  2. I love it!

    First you shave your beard, then you have your hedge trimmed....oh er....

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  3. It does look a lot tidier. I am quite interested in the washing line of 'her at no.17' though...

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