Short back and sides

Our lovely gardener came this morning to do a very belated trim of our rose garden parterre. This is far later in the year than he usually does it, and the buxus was looking really shaggy, just like most of us looked during lockdown when we couldn’t get to the hairdresser’s! 

When we first planted the hedge over 25 years ago it was just about a foot high once it became established, but over the years it has gradually grown to about twice that height. Now I get nervous to climb over it to prune the roses in case I overbalance and get caught in the thorns, so I have to engage the help of Smithers. He holds on to me as I gingerly climb over into each quadrant, and then catches the dead heads as I throw them towards him, depositing them into the bin for me. That’s as far as I can train him, horticulturally speaking! In all other respects he’s exceptionally well trained of course …