Hey I Love You, Hey I Hate You

A dense, upright hedge looks like a neat, clean, well-kept lawn. But a neglected or poorly trimmed hedge can be ugly for a long time… even more than an abandoned lawn! Looks at the relationship between man and hedge.

Katherine Handfield
Press

There are tailors, there are tailors. Jean Perrault considers himself in the second category. He has been trimming hedges and bushes in the Basses-Laurentides region for 35 years. For him it is not only a livelihood but also a hobby. “I like it, going to work”, sums up Mr. Perrault.

And his customers, proudly, say very proud of their hedge.

“Some have been trimming their hedges for 25, 30 years, emphasized Jean Perrault. They don’t leave it in anyone’s hands, and for good reason. »

Some of them accompany the trimmers throughout the operation to ensure that the hedge is trimmed according to the rules of the art. Jean Perrault remembers this gentleman who tapped a freshly cut hedge with his cane, giving it a little volume, like a customer running through his hair when leaving the hairdresser.

“There are those who are awake in life. Their house is neat, their car is clean, their parking lot is clean, their lawn is free of weeds… it’s all. »

There is no middle ground

Jo’Anne Belanger shares the same passion for the cedar hedge. (We say cedar in Quebec, but it’s actually western cedar.)

Thanks to the baby cedars she picked in the woods, Jo’Anne Chaudière—on her land in Saint-Sylvestre, Appalachia—has grown two (serious) hedges that act as a shelter against the wind. One around its swimming pool and the other around the fireplace.

Its hedges are narrow, dense, straight.

“A thuya left free, like a tree, is very beautiful. But when you plant it for a hedge, you have to manage it. We have no choice,” said Joanne Belanger, who cut the thorns with a chainsaw for lack of love.

“I am a good witness to disputes between neighbors caused by cedar sticks! She adds with a smile.

In his eyes, whether we like it or not. “I don’t think there is any in between. »

“The Taste of Crying”

In the opposite camp, the cedar hedge attracts many insects, including those who are old-fashioned or tired of annual pruning. There are also some who have nothing against hedges in general, but everything against their hedge (or their neighbor’s). A hedge left to grow and then pruned too hard, whether it’s cedar or hardwood, leaves something to be desired.

When Bouchra Moutayakin bought her house in 2021, the cedar hedge that framed her land was already not very pretty. But when his neighbor decided to cut what he could on his side, hoping it would “grow better,” the hedge turned completely ugly.

Disappointingly, M.^me Moutayakine asked for advice in the Gardening Facebook group. “Every time I see her, I cry,” she wrote.

A year later, the emotion is no longer strong (“I’m used to seeing her so ugly!”), but Hedge has not improved at all. M^me Mautaya himself knew this well: there was nothing much to do.

“It’s a shame, because a beautiful garden and a well-kept hedge give the house something of an imposing image, even if it’s not imposing,” said Ms.^me Mautayakin himself, now has to deal with the “little neglected side” of his land.

Without apology

According to horticultural columnist Larry Hodgson, author of The Laidback Gardener blog, if people own cedars, it’s basically to get some prestige from them. In short, like the quest for the perfect lawn. But the problem with thuya is that it is an “unforgiving” plant, he reached by telephone.

If we prune the green, the plant will grow back. But if you cut too far, in brown wood, the branches will no longer turn green there.

If something does happen (like the woman who recently wrote to Laidback Gardener to say a truck hose had burned part of her hedge), “there’s not much to do,” sums up Larry Hodgson, just a bit of pruning around and the hope that the lower stem will eventually grow enough to hide the hole.

Larry Hodgson likes deciduous shrubs, such as shrub cinquefoil, blueberry, arctic willow or Japanese spirea. Plants that grow back… and sorry. “That’s my lazy gardener view!” »

Tailor Jean Perrault admits that sometimes the solution is to rip everything out and replant, but he prefers to explore other methods first, such as pruning and redirecting the sap.

Redesign the screen

The relationship between man and the hedge is also the relationship between man and intimacy, for his part Emile Forrest, gardener and general coordinator of New Neighbours, believes that the organization aims to change our relationship to the territory. If we feel good in nature, it allows us to deceive ourselves, among other things, he says. “The hedge is perhaps an extension of it,” sums up Emile Forrest.

To create this screen, a hedge is one solution, a wooden fence clad in vines is another, but Nowwex’s neighbors like to see things differently. “To encourage diversity, I think there’s a way to create plant beds by mixing different species that have a little more organic shapes — cedars or hemlocks, perhaps, but other shrubs as well . »

Half of New Neighbors’ clients are suburban residents who have cedar hedges. Tear it all down? This is generally not recommended. Cedar is a native conifer that not only welcomes birds, but also grows on the island of Montreal. Often, Nouveaux neighbors advise its users to cut their hedge differently, let it grow a little, improve it with other species. Yes, Emile Forrest agrees, we’re losing land, but we’re giving back to nature. “To link the spaces in the premises, we can make a network of paths designed by nature,” he says. It doesn’t have to be a white carpet with a cedar hedge backdrop. »

Emile Forest also sees a parallel between the cedar hedge and the lawn, “the two great beauties of nature, domesticated and reduced”. “We couldn’t see what the cedar was,” he said. We use it in a non-disruptive way, but it’s really different, more diverse. »