HEDGE-CUTTING QUERIES Fergus Collins replies:

Funnily enough, my wife tried dahlias this year and a host of different pests, including slugs, feasted on the foliage AND flowers. It was not a happy venture. If we cover dahlias again in the magazine, we will certainly mention this.

I would really appreciate Adam’s view on the practice of annual (sometimes more) hedge-cutting by farmers and councils. I fully understand the need for them to be cut, both in fields and by roads. What I don’t understand is: a) Why does the cutting begin in August and continue into March? b) Why on Earth is it ‘allowed’ to result in a huge distance of a public road to be covered in lethally sharp bits of wood and thorn?

I live in the Lake District and obviously have many miles of small country roads to have to drive on, so when hedge-cutting has been carried out, the debris cannot be avoided. To date, we have spent several hundreds of pounds replacing punctured tyres!

Surely in this day and age it is not impossible to firstly condense the cutting time to winter months (better for birds and wildlife anyway) and, more importantly, have an efficient guard on the machine that actually directs the cuttings downwards and inwards. I am no engineer, but it can’t be that difficult, to save a lot of people a lot of money.

Bridget Rowlands, Cumbria

Thanks Bridget, this is an excellent subject for a future column by Adam. I am frequently saddened to see hedges cut and trees pruned while still covered in life-giving fruit and nuts for our willdife.

Apologies to our November issue Letter of the Month winner Ben Whittall for the misspelling of his name.

Xxxx xxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxx xxx xxxxxxxxx xxx xxx xxxxxxxxx xxx xxx What limits should xxx xxxxxx xxx xx be set on hedge-cutting?