The unruly hedge

Oh, how I dreaded having our  big hedge cut back. But as you can see from this photo, taken the morning after the big trim, it still provides a lot of privacy for our garden. 

The back-alley view of the newly cut hedge. You can see all the bare limbs, but we still have some privacy from the lane.

Cats hide in it. Squirrels fling themselves through its top branches, and raccoons have a regular route through it. John and I hide garden furniture, plant pots, tarps and garbage cans in it: The cedar hedge at the back of our property has always been our own little piece of unruly nature in the middle of the city.

Three 20-foot-high cedar trees also provide a lot of privacy, so for many reasons, I did not welcome the obvious conclusion when John began telling me the trees were pushing over the back fence and growing well out into the alley. Where would the critters play? Where would we hide our junk? How many years would it take to block out the big houses behind us?

It took a while to convince me, but Bill, our tree guy, had a plan. Lop off the back of the trees, leaving their fronts as a screen, he suggested. Then plan tall, fast-growing Portuguese laurels in the gaps for a quick start on a new hedge.

Three days post-Bill, I am quite calm. From the garden side, we still have most of our privacy. The back alley is obstruction-free and neater than it has been for years. The cut trunks look stark and you can see some of our garden furniture from the lane. But the three new laurels are bushy and look like they mean business. I'm hoping we'll have our unruliness back in a few short years.

Three holes by the back fence, awaiting the new Portuguese laurels, which are fast-growing and evergreen.

What ended up under the back hedge when it was all hidden from view.  We will have to be neater for awhile.

A look at the cut-back trees.

Bill, our tree guy, picking up debris the day after the big cut.

It took him three trailer loads to get rid of it all.

John was in the process of putting up new lattice at the top of the fence when I took this photo. It shows the new laurels poking up.

The new laurels in place. We planted two other Portuguese laurels in front of the garage two years ago, and they have shot up. We hope these will do the same.