Monster Hedge in Indian Summer

I took this two days ago in my garden in the Indian Summer which now seems to be over as it is quite chilly. The hedge is beech. The yellow flowers are Rudbeckia good for late colour.

Sussex topiary

Another amazing day with the European Boxwood and Topiary Society, this time looking at gardens in Sussex.

Warwickshire Topiary

I have been in Warwickshire looking at topiary gardens in order to organise a weekend tour for the European Boxwood and Topiary Society in May 2010. Above Packwood House, a National Trust property famous for its yew trees. Below Barcelo Billesley Manor Hotel has a garden enclosed by walls of yew. Inside these weird and wonderful shapes. More on http://www.flickr.com/photos/14376153@N05/sets/72157622364935183/

The Greeneyed Monster

The Silver Eyed monster part 2. I was emailed with a question as to what the Silver Eyed Monster looked like when it was Green Eyed. It looked exactly the same except that it eye was copper turning green This shows him in his temporary black eyed stage back in February when I had removed the copper eye, a cymbal, that was poisoning one of the bushes in the yew hedge with a steady drip of copper.

I had also poisoned a whole lot of indoor plants including a giant Monstera (cheese plant) by incorporating small sculptures stuck on to copper tubes into the soil. (The tubes were only used because they were handy.) The poisoning inside and out took about six years and became manifest at the same time . Monstera, the Yew Monster and all the others have made a full recovery on removal of all copper.

The greeneyed monster has become a silver eyed one. Yesterday more time sorting garden. I restored an eye to the Yew Monster. It had a copper cymbal as an eye - to become a green eyed monster - but after six years the neck began to wither and I was advised it was being poisoned by the copper. Its removal has led to the hedge recovering. So now it has a hubcap for an eye.

One of the sculptures , made by young offenders in Bristol, on show in the Horsepower exhibition at Horseworld near Bristol, has started to fall apart after a few days through over enthusiastic audience interaction. It is agreed to move it into the workshop for greater superivision. It is mainly papier mache and delicate.

My fellow curator Caroline Read may have found a sponsor to transport the rearing life sized horse of Dean Williams to the Horsepower Exhibition. The horse has starred in the local media including the BBC in Leicestershire and we hope we can get it to Bristol and attract similar interest. Dean sends me a copy of article in Leicester Mercury which shows him with the horse. It does look spectacular.