The cotoneaster hedge alongside our drive has been a continual bone of contention usually between my neighbour and myself. The hedge is on our property but the neighbour keeps cutting it with his hedge trimmer and causing a lot of damage as this species isn't really suitable for cutting with a hedge trimmer as it chews the shoots up plus he cuts the top which is on our property. As a result the top is now a mess. BTW the reason he comes along and cuts it is because he decides I leave it too long before I cut it but in fact i am unable to cut it until the blackbird finishes nesting, it is surprising that it continues to nest in the hedge considering it is disturbed despite my best efforts.
Anyway i have digressed, the argument has now moved to between me and OH as he came home and found i had cut the hedge back by about a foot. Obviously wasn't listening when I said this would be happening and why. Unfortunately he's not a gardener so he doesn't understand the only way to keep a hedge etc in good condition is too prune out the dead and damaged bits and you can't pussyfoot around and be gentle when the damage to the top by the neighbour has caused lots of dead branches developing coral spot (starting to spread to live wood) plus branches have 'grafted themselves together' in big knots making it hard to trim and meaning the hedge has got higher and higher. the chewing effect of the hedge trimmer has caused lots of shoots to sprout from one spot basically it's a mess and I'm having to cut out the mess. It will look terrible until about May when it will have grown back.
So frustrating having a pointless argument it's not as if we have a pet which I'm planning to amputate it's leg or something...it's a hedge that needs remedial work.
