June 2025
June has been largely spent trying to catch up, after a late start to the season. There’s no point sowing vegetable seed before the ground warms up, so my rows of would-be peas, beans, squash, carrots and leaf lettuce were sown in mid-June and are only now emerging.
Similarly, the labyrinth’s annual trim took place only a week ago, rather than at the usual time in April. For this task, I rely on the steady hand and eye of Paco Garcia, who played a major role in creating it back in 2013, and whose skill with an electric hedge-clipper enables him to tidy and shape the whole thing in a matter of hours. In its early years, a gentle shave along the top of the hedge kept it even, while the same ‘gentle shave’ along its sides left the path between the rows wide enough to allow two people to walk side by side.
Like so many other things, that changed with the pandemic. In 2020, when no trimming at all could be done, the hedge invaded the path to such a degree that cutting back two years’ growth the following year would have exposed the underlying twig structure. Now that the hedge is well-established and grows so vigorously, keeping the path wide enough for one person is a more realistic aim.
The Rose is called The Lark Ascending.
The real challenge now is what to do with the clippings, once modest in amount, but now seemingly destined to eternal increase. They make good mulch, and so are generously strewn over the rose-bed and under the hydrangeas. Wheelbarrows-full are trundled along the lane for my neighbours. This uses up only half of what we sweep up after the trim, so we stuff them into garden refuse sacks and leave these next to the municipal collection bins (no such thing as recycling here!). A few more bagsful, which Paco will use for compost, go into the back of his van. Trying to dispose of the clippings little by little reminds me of the POWs in ‘The Great Escape’ getting rid of earth from the tunnels via their trouser-pockets. I have until next year to come up with some equally ingenious solution, but for now, the labyrinth looks splendid.