*NEWS* This is the tranquil Memorial Garden in the heart of Carshalton. It is a popular place to sit, and events are often held here. But now the beautiful hedges that surround the garden have been cut very short, and in a seemingly haphazard fashion – creating an ugly appearance.
Update: see an explanation from the councillor in the comments below
The question is why do they look like this? At this moment it’s not clear. Usually a hedge like this is trimmed regularly to maintain a neat appearance, but what has happened here?
This location next to Carshalton Ponds was once owned by the Church of England, and sold to the council back in 1944. It was officially opened in 1951. Here’s some photos of how it looks today…
Leave your feedback and thoughts, and we may update this post in light of your comments. Below is how the garden looked until recently.
Sutton Council had an issue a year or two back when contractors cut down (rather than neatly cut back) rows of ornamental hedging along Beeches Avenue in Carshalton Beeches. Since then, new hedges have been planted, but how well these will take or are looked after remains to be seen.
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5 months on, how are they looking? Surely a follow up article is needed.
Our Yew hedges after being allowed to get too large had a severe back and sides, growing now after a 12months and are getting some shape.
Dear Secret Carshalton,
this is part of the renovation process of the yew hedges around the Memorial garden. The hedges were being overgrown by vigorous ivy. While it looked green, without action, the ivy would eventually cover all of the yew and kill it.
Because the ivy is quite thick in parts of the edge, removing it make the hedge look a bit scruffy and there will initially be bare stems an some gaps. But eventually it will be restored and we will have a beautiful formal edge. Parts of the Hedge were badly damaged and will have to be replanted in the autumn.
Wildlife was also a priority and the works were done outside the nesting season.
This was the right thing to do in the long run.
I hope this helps to clarify.
Best wishes,
Isabel Araujo (Cllr for Carshalton Central)
Thank you for providing some clarification
Yet you won’t alter the headline
By chance I saw these pictures on “Secret Carshalton” only a day or two after having seen the awful mess in reality. It appears that not only have the hedges been butchered but the pallisade fencing between the memorial ground and the ecology centre have been damaged. Whatever the council say, I don’t believe that anyone seeing the results will think that this is the work of professionals. I would suggest that the work of contractors may need to be more closely specified, supervised and reviewed.
Hi isabel sorry to tell you that ivy does not kill trees anyone who believes that also believes that Red Kites Kill Sheep and that Hedgehogs steal milk stright from the Cow.
This Hedge Butchery was not gentle or holistic or in any way beneficial and considered how bent up metal fencing is behind it that it looks like it was done with a mechanic hedge cutter on an extended arm from a small excavator a fast smash and slash job.
I work with Hedges and trees if i presented that as my work i’d get fired from my job and it will take several years before that hedge looks anything like it did before.
I would like to know who the contractors you used are so i can advise any of my clients or anyone asking for Hedge and Gardening to avoid this company like the plague
Hacking at hedges and riverside seems to be their only method – look at the Wandle paths across the borough
what a mess… looks like an act of vandalism……