Bye Bye Box Hedge

Today we got round to a project we'd been thinking about for ages - removing the box hedge from the front garden.  It's probably about 100 years old and when first planted must have been small and smart.  In the 20-odd years since we've been here it's become a monster, looming over the flowerbed, sucking out all the nutrients and bulging so fatly you can't get on to the lawn. Last month's freak snow was the final straw - the hedge was leaning drunkenly forwards.  It had to go.  The first picture is taken from Room 1 looking down on the huge hedge.

Just starting - the point of no return!

 Taking off the outer greenery revealed a horrid tangle of naked branches.  At this point the gardeners among you are probably reeling with horror at this arboreal vandalism.

Tolkien-esque twisted trees

Nearly done

Flowers now have room to grow

Much tidier

To be honest we have no idea whether the box hedge will survive.  It may - we had to cut back the box hedge on the upper terrace a couple of years ago after a hard winter, and it put out green shoots after a year.  So this is a "wait and see" job.  I now have a flower bed which has doubled in size!