Absolute joke

[Patq]

I live in a social housing flat we pay a surcharge which includes gardeners this is what they did to our bushes. Is this acceptable?

They have been a bit over enthusiastic but I assume it is so they don't have to come as often. Those will recover.

But they could have waited until they had finished flowering ...
Should have cut the grass instead of the hedge!

We are the same. Our estate has loads of pyracantha which used to be are full of berries in the autumn. These provided much needed shelter and food for the birds through the winter. They were stunning to look at.

The council indiscriminately cuts them to the ground each autumn leaving unsightly stumps. Also preventing them from producing berries which flower from that seasons wood.

If I am able to catch the gardeners, I occasionally been able to stop the decimating those out side my front door.

An elderly friend of mine has a gardening firm who come every year to “prune” her garden, ie shave every bush into a round blob. They come in winter, so she never has flowers on her Viburnum bodnantense. They’re reliable and affordable, so she stays with them, butI saw her almost in tears after one visit.

There’s pressure in some neighbourhoods for all gardens to be “tidy” and not lower the tone. Some people seem genuinely to believe that unless all bushes are tightly pruned domes separated by clear earth from the next, that the garden is not being maintained and is “literally a jungle”.

There's a big difference between garden maintenance people and actual gardeners.

The first lot will just come and cut everything back periodically to make it all nice and neat, with no consideration for flowers, berries, whatever.

The second lot will prune at the right time of year for the plant.

The local counccil here (South Kesteven!) send a man round to cut the grass verges and he mowed straight through a patch of bee orchids And that was after we'd pointed them out to him. He strugged and said he didn't know about things like that and - whoosh - over he went.

Bee orchids may only fllower once in their lifetimes and these all had their heads cut off in their prime.

@MonsterMandibles I trust you complained to the Council. They get lots of complaints about pavements and verges “looking untidy”, they need more voices raised in favour of plants.

I did - got a 'thanks for your email' response back and then silence so far - that was about 10 days ago.

Yes they could have left them until the flowers died but it's more about the state of the cut. It's like they've played fruit ninja on the shrubs not a straight line anywhere and what shape is the shrub in the middle?😮 I'm paying for this.

Try your Councillors and dig out your Council ecologist. See if your local Wildlife Trust will support you. And try [[//