My pond garden is about to have a major change in its environment – and I am not doing anything to make it happen.

My previous neighbours planted a Leylandii hedge, just on their side of the fence.  True to its reputation, the hedge has grown very fast, and not been kept trimmed back.  It has therefore become rather tall.  Each year I trim back what I can reach on my side of the fence, but as the trees get taller and taller, this has become more and more difficult, and I have gained a tree covered archway into my garden from the side gate.

My new neighbour had the trees trimmed back a little when she first moved in a couple of years ago, but this has only slightly reduced their race for the sky.  She has now researched the growth habit of the trees and understands that they will not regrow from dead wood.  I am really glad therefore that she has decided that the trees should go.

The only thing is that this means that I am going to have to totally rethink the planting on my side of the fence.  Currently I have concentrated on plants that can cope with dry shade since the trees took a great deal of the moisture available and obviously created a great deal of shade.  The one thing that I don’t plan to change is the ideology that in this area of the garden, the key focus is green rather than bright flowers.  The pond garden has been designed to be a restful area, very different in feel to the rest of the garden.

I will have to wait until the trees come down to see how much more light we will get in this part of the garden.  Then I will have lots of fun deciding which plants will suit the new conditions and then seeing if I am right.  I will have to remember that my neighbour does plant to replant this area, possibly with shrubs, so there probably won’t be a great deal more moisture available.

Now I wonder if this project will give ideas to my other neighbour who has a Leylandii hedge on my border.  Thank goodness they do trim theirs every few years, so my garden hasn’t totally lost all the light, but I do wish that more people were prepared to wait a little for plants to grow and bought less vigorous options.