The telescopic hedge trimmer finally arrived yesterday, better late than never. Just like the strimmer, it’s battery needed 15 hours of charging, so we weren’t able to try it out until today.

What a disappointment. Advertised as being able to easily cut through branches up to 10/16ths thick (to me that is just over 1/2″) in practice the thing jammed at the sight of anything thicker than a matchstick. A very stop start affair.

We probably need to give it another chance, but early impressions are not good. Any machine that doesn’t do the job you bought it for is a real pain in the neck.

This morning I weeded flower bed number one, and a lot better it looks too. I was pleased to see that a lot of the hardy perennials that I grew from seed last year are beginning to show signs of life after their winter rest.

I also pruned the spirea in flower bed number 2. This little plant of un-known parentage is one of my favourites. Prune it once around now and it’s as good as gold for the rest of the year.

It’s new leaves are a lovely red colour which makes it look like it has little lights on the end of it’s branches. Sweet. If only all plants were so reliable and biddable.