Trimmings

This, folks, is the plumbago hedge at work. Plumbago has a very pretty powder blue flower on it and that makes it a very popular. Unfortunately it has a terrible growth habit. It suckers. Lots of different types and species of plants sucker, its where a shoot grows straight from the roots, instead of an existing above ground stem. Plumbago is such a dense shrub due to all of these suckers, it is fast growing and invasive. It will quite happily smother anything else around it. If you have an area where it can be contained, it can look rather nice. Hence the reason we have such a large hedge of the stuff. Unfortunately, like all hedges, it requires pruning when it gets too big. So armed with hedge trimmers and the pole hedge trimmer, we spend a good 3 hours trimming the bush back into shape. I get the bonus, that I am the tallest of the crew at the bunker, so its usually me on the pole hedge trimmer doing the center/top of the hedge as its easier for me to reach. I still have to stromp through the hedge to reach certain areas. Now, because its such a tangle of branches, stromping though it is no mean feat, especially when trying to balance a pole hedge trimmer as well. If you look at the photos, in the top one you can see the little billy goat trails I have made, while trying to reach certain areas. I quite often lose my balance, so in the bottom photo, is a me shaped dent I made when I lost my balance and couldnt get up easily. One thing I am grateful for, is the hedge doesnt receive alot of water, so we only have to prune it every 2-3 months.