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Sometimes something happens that makes me stop and wonder about some of my fellow humans. Maybe it’s an act of vandalism, the seemingly pointless destruction or defacing of an object, people who drop litter or those couples who park up in a lay-by and sit at the back of the car on fold-out seats eating their lunch as cars whizz past when they have just driven past a stunning beach, gorgeous lake or beautiful wood. I just don’t understand some people some times. Well I had one of these moments the other day.
On my way to the plot is a gate, once through this I turn right and walk along a small stretch of roadside verge before I get to the allotment site. Running along the verge is a hedge; the boundary to someone’s garden. It’s nothing special to look at, I guess, I’m sure most people walk and drive past it without a glance. Made up mainly of Rosa rugosa; only the other day I was admiring the beautiful pink flowers and the first big fat hips as they started to ripen. At the far end of the hedge was a big bushy shrub with large pink, feather duster-like blooms. I don’t know what it was. It wasn’t the sort of plant you’d necessarily want in your garden, lacking quite a bit of refinement but, here by the side of the road, it was providing a splash of colour and more importantly it, and the rose, were providing an important source of pollen and nectar for our struggling insects.
You may have noted my use of the past tense. Sadly, when I went up to the plot the other day I came across the sight of a hedge that looked like it had been butchered. Gone were the roses, the hips and the pink flowers, all hacked at by someone who either had no idea what they had done or just didn’t care. The hedge is a good 5ft from the road and it posed no problem to traffic. I did, initially, wonder whether it was the council, who like many other local authorities don’t have a great policy on letting plants grow. There was the story, for instance, of the council in Hampshire that cut down, before it had the chance to shed its seeds, the rare narrow-leaved helleborine orchid, not just once but 3 years in a row. However, when I got to my own plot I realised it wasn’t the council but the owner of the property the hedge bounds. The end of my plot shares a hedge with the property, too and it had been hacked at as well. The mess that was left was frustrating, branches strewn everywhere, some were still attached, but only barely, to the hedge. Hawthorn, forsythia and ribes all made for a really colourful boundary in spring and gave a certain degree of privacy to the plot from another of those infernal trampolines and wayward rugby balls.
I’ve now got to spend a half day up there clearing up the mess, cutting everything up to fit in the council waste bags and tidying up the hedge so it doesn’t look quite so dreadful to look at. I’m busy enough without having to tidy up someone else’s mess. But it’s less about this, frustrating as it is, and more about the thoughtlessness about chopping down plants that were important for wildlife. I’m not suggesting that plants don’t need some control occasionally but cutting it back in late winter would have been much better.
I am the only one who dreams of a utopia where everyone appreciates the natural world more and sees themselves as a custodian and not the master. I came across a couple of neighbours the other day scattering ant powder about their driveway. I suggested they just boil a kettle instead rather than use a chemical. They looked pretty sceptical so I saw no point in suggesting they leave the ants alone as they posed no problem.
Gorgeous rose hips that are no more
Anyway, apologies for the rant. It looks like it might have stopped raining, so I guess I’d better get off to the plot with my loppers for a spot of hedge tidying.
wellywoman 
OMG that’s just shocking. Rant away, if we all rant enough maybe we’ll change those who simply don’t see the beauty around them
Hi Ena, I was so annoyed when I came across it and the mess left behind. For some people things like hedges are just a nuisance.
Hi,
I’d chuck it all back onto their garden! If they’re going to be so frustrating like that, then I think they deserve to at least clear up their mess.
Some people just honestly do not care. It’s as simple as that. As upsetting as it is; it’s the truth and no matter how much we try to educate or reason with these people they continue to do as they wish. My dad is one of them, although I think I have managed to at least move to organic weed killers (I’m sceptical that there is such a thing) but he’d think nothing of butchering plants like above.
I did think about it but the bit of hedge by my allotment is actually on my side of a fence so I suppose technically it is my waste material. I’m not keen in getting into that sort of thing anyway. I don’t want to go up one day and find my flowers destroyed or something similar as a sort of plant war develops. 😉 My parents are pretty trigger happy with weedkillers and slug pellets. I have tried to convert them but they think I’m some hippy dippy person waffling on about organics. A generation thing I guess.
No need to apologise as see the wanton hacking and spraying regularly here on roadsides and almost brings me to tears. A neighbouring farmer once sprayed our entire hedgerow with herbicide accidentally when he drove past in his tractor. He hadn’t checked his equipment before driving it on the road and one of the spraying arms hadn’t shut down properly. The only thing I can say from that experience (everything looked dead for months in our pretty lane) was that nature’s incredible and it will grow back, with perhaps some unexpected and beautiful surprises.
A farmer subcontracted out his spraying and the contractor guy was crop spraying on a windy day and sprayed all along some allotments, locally. Killed all the soft fruit. I think I’d have given up if it was my plot.
I think a few of us will join you in your utopia, all we can do is just politely suggest to people that there are other ways to deal with their problems, rather than hacking back and putting chemicals everywhere. Such a shame about the hedge, hope it has a chance to sprout again before winter, at least then it will form a bit of protection for birds and little mammals
Hi Pauline, Maybe we could all buy an island somewhere.;)
I know what you mean. There’s a lovely path along the river in Ely where I often walk my dog, and the farmer that owns the land adjacent to it, has pulled out a long stretch of bramble bushes that were full of fruit. They provided a home and food for the wildlife (as well as local blackberry pickers). If he really needed to take them out, why couldn’t he have waited a few more months? I guess some people just don’t want to do these jobs in winter. Careless and thoughtless.
I was cultivating quite a nice crop of blackberries in the hedge too. Some seem to have survived. Peoples’ actions leave me speechless sometimes. And sometimes farmers, supposedly custodians of the countryside, are the worst.
I know just how you feel. Here it is litter left by the road side in country area; well I say litter but actually it’s people’s rubbish that they can’t be bothered to take into town to the bins (there are no collections in country areas here in Italy). the other day there wasa bag on the road with broken glass in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There’s quite a problem with fly tipping here in the UK because people can’t be bothered to go to the tip. What I don’t understand is they drive somewhere to dump the stuff that is further away from their houses probably than the tip.
I don’t blame you for the rant, I quite agree. What a shame and it only makes it worse having to tidy it up yourself. Enjoy the lovely stuff YOU grow and look after!
Thank you, Started on some of the tidying up but it’s so wet here hoping for some dry weather at the weekend.
I hope for a dry weekend too so if we both try hard enough maybe we can make it so!!
Is there a sun dance we could do instead of a rain dance?
We could invent one…I’m thinking big smiles and ‘jazz hands’…!
I’ll give it a go but I can’t promise anything!!
No need to apologize. It is really sad. Some people… Don’t get me started 😦
Hi Denise, There are times when I feel I could just write more posts about this sort of thing but I prefer to keep things a bit lighter. 😉
It’s your blog – rant whenever you want because of life’s injustice. Probably most of your readers are gardeners, and we not only understand but feel your pain.
Hi Judy, I don’t like to rant too often. I like to be positive and cheerful, there is enough misery on the news but sometimes it’s good to get something off your chest. Thank you.
Eeh what a shame, some people just don’t think! Very sad!
Hi Rachel, mmm extremely annoying!
NO apologies! You do know you are singing to the choir here? I was amused to see my neighbour happily harvesting her bunch from our Japanese flowering quince. It arches over her wall – instead of whining or hacking, we both enjoy those flowers lighting up a grey winter day!
Hi Diana, thank you. Wish I had a neighbour like that. 😉
I do love to read a good rant! Seriously, this must have been a shock to you, and caused you a lot of work too. A mixed country hedge is one of the things I dream about and if I ever move out of town, it’s the first thing I’ll plant. I just don’t understand people who see plants as furniture.
Thanks Lyn, it’s good to release pent up anger. I don’t understand it either.
I can understand your annoyance. I too would be irritated at that – not just the loss of the beautiful hedge but also the cleaning up!
I have 2 pet gripes when it comes to gardens. I cannot for the life of me understand people who buy properties that have lovingly tended and beautiful gardens and within 6 months, the garden has been left to go to wrack and ruin or completely destroyed. I used to walk past a house in a nearby street but 12 months ago changed my walking route. The said house is a beautiful sandstone residence from the mid 1800’s. The previous owners were obviously gardeners and the house and garden were absolutely superb and very lovingly tended and cared for.
The house was sold 18 months ago and purchased for a very large sum by a youngish couple with young children. This morning I walked past the house after not going that way for a good 12 months and was shocked at the state of the house. The beautiful iron lacework verandah is being used to store junk. The garden has been completely trashed and is full of weeds. Most of the lovely Spring flowering plants (including a magnolia) have either been pulled out or hacked to the ground. There are kids toys strewn everywhere. Not everyone is a green thumb or has aspirations to be, but for heavens sake why destroy someone so beautiful?
The other big gripe I have are people stealing flowers and plants out of front gardens. Not merely picking something hanging over the footpath. I’m talking those scumbags who enter your property and pick every damn thing under the cover of darkness. We had this problem in our previous house. I had a lovely front garden full of blooms and I would regularly go out in the morning to find every rose had been snipped, every daffodil had been picked, etc. Makes my blood boil!!
Danielle, I share your gripes. It must be awful seeming such a beautiful garden go into decline. I understand not everyone has the time to garden but what I don’t understand is why they would buy a house, get a flat if you don’t want some nice outside space. We know some with gardens that are just grass and fence and, if we get the weather, are just somewhere for the barbecue. They grudgingly mow the lawn but the idea of putting in some trees, shrubs and flowers seems an alien concept. But why wouldn’t you want the garden to look nice when you sat out in it eating your burger? Oh well. I guess some just don’t want to be surrounded by plants.
As for stealing plants, it is a problem here too. My parents had a lot of plants stolen back in the early nineties. Fortunately, I haven’t experienced it but with the current economic situation apparently it is on the rise.
I couldn’t agree more about the hedge, it would have reduced me to tears to see it. But after years of leaving the ‘harmless’ ants outside to do their own thing they decided to reward us by taking up residence under the concrete floors of our house. As they stream out from gaps in skirting boards each summer a kettle isn’t really an option! Even chemical warfare seems to mean they just relocate and within a year or two the problem is back. If only we’d ‘nuked’ them outside when we had the chance!
I wouldn’t want ants in the house but then I wouldn’t fancy having to put down the chemicals either. I really feel for you.
So sad. Some people on this Planet just don’t have the connection with the lovely plants and beings that inhabit here. Maybe you can grow some new plants from the cuttings. I just love the hips on Rosa Rugusa. What destruction…..
I know Bridget. The hips are stunning aren’t they? I’m glad I managed to capture them when I did.
Good reason to rant. How dreadful – and they didn’t even do a good job of the hacking! So many people just don’t realise what they have, just see a nuisance and wade in with sharp implements. Very frustrating.
For some, hedges and gardens are just a bit of a nuisance. I think it may have been the son of the elderly owner. May be he’s strapped for time and was just trying to get the job done as quickly as possible, I don’t know.
This is a post that I empathise with wholeheartedly.
If I saw that I’d rant too. I see things like that all too often, and its especially annoying when the council do it.
It also saddens me that it’s the wildlife that suffers yet again thanks to someone’s thoughtless uncaring actions.
You’re certainly not the only one who dreams of a utopia that you describe but sadly we do seem to be a minority. xx
Hi Flighty, it is sad isn’t it? I get a bit pessimistic about the future of the environment sometimes because I don’t think there are enough people who care. Feel like a cheery post to come, to lighten the mood, especially on a dull, wet, Welsh day.
I’m shaking my head!!! Why!!!! The farmers here don’t appreciate the wild flowers growing in the ditches along MY driveway and down to their fields!!! Someone mowed them down the other day while I was gone. The yellow finches eat there all day and now they are gone!!! grrr, OK, was it ok that I ranted with you?
Stacey
Stacey, I despair. Sometimes farmers do seem to be the worst culprits, which is sad. Feel free to rant 😉 That’s what I love about blogging, discovering like-minded people who share the same passions. WW
This is a rant I will happily join you in. I always think the saddest day of the year is the day the man comes round and cuts all the hedges and verges down. Quite often before a lot of the plants have actually had a chance to flower.
It would be intriguing to know what the countryside looked like several hundred years ago before it was all so neat and tidy!
I think a rant was definitely needed there, I would have been doing the same. I can sympathise, there is a lovely plot on my allotment, its one I aspire to. They grow lots of lovely fruit and veg but also loads of flowers and the plots is surrounded by a hedge of Rosa rugosa, one of my favourite roses for the scent alone. They allow lots of flowers to self seed in the hedge too so its a mix of aquiliegias, toadflax, oxeye daisies, honesty, alchemilla mollis and more. Its a pleasure to walk past to my plot. However my neighbour on the site uses weedkiller like its going out of fashion and has a sterile plot with not a whiff of wildlife. My neighbours on the other side have also just cut down a lovely rosa rugosa hedge. They probably think I’m mad for growing flowers and letting some things self seed.
That is one of the downsides to having an allotment. Quite a few of my fellow plot holders don’t believe in organic growing. That plot sounds absolutely gorgeous. It is strange how some people see things so differently. I know which plot I’d rather have 😉