I guess it depends on how long the hedge is and how much is being taken off. My partner has a hedge which I guess is about 150’ long (in the UK) and I think she pays £450 for it to be cut - top and both sides, and the trimmings taken away.
Better late than never! SAP is a solid French initiative, whether direct or via an agency, using CESU or CESU advance immediat.
We got pur computer repaired this way, and I have a sports coach at home that fits tge criteria too. So think wider than hedges!
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This is the first year we have needed someone to do the hedges, I don’t mind doing the lower ones, but this one has hawthorn in it and I don’t want to get ripped to shreds, again!!
I’ll have a think about other services i might use.
OK gardening friends I need some advice. I have had a wobbly gardening year, very focussed on flowers to the detriment of my food (now regretting with what’s going on in the world!!). Further compounded by being sick in the April holidays (and doing lots of hours at the agency), then starting the job with the long drive, 2 weddings and 2 weeks in the UK ect ect ect all at the time I should have been planting! I have got tomatoes in (not doing much yet) and a dew pepper plants, but that’s about it. The odd thing I started months ago in soil blocks the May heatwave got!
So here we are August 1st so what to do!!?? I went this morning to the agricultural co-op and found a fairly sad looking yellow zuchinni / courgette and another pepper, last left! I don’t realistically get frost before late November (I think my official last frost date is the 15/11). So my question is WHAT can I plant??? Obviously all the regular autumn planting is good to go but I’m thinking with the heat and 3.5 months what could I still get a sneaky summer crop of some stuff in to actually feed us?? Butternut from seed?? Beans? Peas?
This is my sweet potato from last year. I read 90-120 days if I plant like tomorrow would I get a crop?? If worth a try should I try yo quickly get roots going or plant in chunks? Cut off each slip and plant? Pot into opts to get going and plant out in a week or 2? Or not bother??
I also got 50 leeks this morning and have onions and stuff so will be OK for later but really want more veg veg!!
All ideas welcome!!
You should be fine with peas, I’ve just put in my second crop and they should do well. They did last year even though the weather was dismal so although I’m not in France I think it should be ok for you.
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@toryroo - we don’t grow any veg except tomatoes but I’ve put the question ’what veg can you plant in France in August’ and got this reply from Google.
In August, you can plant cool-season and autumn-harvest vegetables in France, focusing heavily on spinach, radishes and winter lettuce
Leafy greens and Salads
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Spinach: Direct sow fast-growing varieties like the classic French heirloom Monstrueux de Viroflay for autumn and winter crops.
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Lamb’s Lettuce (Mâche): Plant this cold-hardy favorite in shaded or semi-shaded beds for late autumn and winter harvesting.
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Autumn/Winter Lettuce: Sow autumn varieties and chicory that will love the warm soil now and mature in 6 to 8 weeks.
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Arugula (Roquette): Quick to sprout and grows well as temperatures start to dip slightly.
Root Vegetables
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Radishes: Sow summer and winter radishes (radis d’hiver); quick radishes are ready in 3 to 4 weeks.
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Carrots: August is the last reliable month to sow fast-maturing or short varieties (like Nantes or Chantenay) for a sweet autumn crop.
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Turnips: Plant for tender roots and greens before the first frost.
Brassicas and Cabbages
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Spring Cabbage: Sow seeds in mid-to-late August for overwintering and a spring harvest.
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Fennel and Swiss Chard: Excellent additions to the late summer garden that withstand mild autumn chills.
HTH. 
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This year, when Stuart planted the tomatoes plants, he also planted small pots of basil, instead of marigolds. We either saw or read that basil deters airborne pests and marigold deters soil based pests. So we thought we’d give basil a go.
Anyway, the tomatoes are looking much healthier than they were last year (same variety/same watering schedule) and they are bigger and taste sweeter which, apparently, is one of the plusses for the basil.
Do any of you use basil compared to marigold and have you reached any conclusions?
If you’re lucky you might get some French beans. Just pop them in ASAP. Mid July is usually end date but autumn can be a very long season these days.
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Might be a bit too hot for some of those.
Chard and beans would be my choice. And maybe carrots.
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Thanks for putting me right Jane. I just took it as read but as we don’t grow veg, I couldn’t confirm or deny.
Rachel05 my few tomato plants are planted with a lavender bush next to them. As good as no pests of any sort..
My pumpkin plant that became a triffid is the other side of the lavender and leaves have been nibbled - a small white moth seems to be involved - but not badly. I might think about some basil next year if pumpkins are willing to be next to basil. I know Marigold is also medicinal but am not keen on the flowers
I have been scattering coffee grounds protectively and also used tea bags and pests have done some activity especially with the tea bsgs So it may not be the lavender at all that has protected 
We have two types of lavender (English and French) next to the tomatoes and I don’t think they’ve had any effect on deterring aphids in the past. That’s why we wanted to try the basil. Teabags and coffee grounds go into the compost bin. Stuart has been dredging the lake to get grit/leaves/etc. from the bottom. He comes home with about a dozen buckets full of the stuff and we’ve been putting it round all the tomatoes besides the grapes and dahlia and gladdy beds. It makes a super mulch and with all the chippings from the hedges and cut down trees, we’re managing to keep the soil quite moist.
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@Wozza or anyone, help! I’m hamstrung by indecision 
and they are still sat on my kitchen bench! 
This morning I got in the courgette (which I hadn’t noticed has a really tiny one on it, guessing not fertilised but we’ll see), the pepper and 24 lettuces. The pepper plant is no smaller than ones that have been sat in my garden for at least a month doing nothing in the heat (and they are irrigated). Will be really interesting to see what happens planting stuff this late!
Sorry I don’t know much about sweet potatoes, I’d try planting 1 or 2 just to see what happens. I’m sowing all of what Rachel05 wrote but I’ll be leaving the spinach, turnips & lambs lettuce till the middle of the month.
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You can plant them out now, but in a heatwave you need to watch them carefully to get them established. Cuttings without roots are less likely to get established, especially when its hot, so chopping them up might be a bit hit and miss.
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Should I try to root them first? Or just shove big chunks with a few growth things in and hope? I do have drip irrigation and the weather seems to be calming now down to about 30c
If they have roots they’ll be more successful. But you could experiment with a few chunks, they might take. Good to have the drip, that will keep them nice and moist.
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Brilliant, thanks, you’ve given me the confidence to give it a go! It’s so dry that even a little away from the drip lines is just dust!
I’m experimenting with pulse watering. I learned about it from an Aussie flower farmer on a podcast who learned it from an almond farmer in South Australia! So instead of doing 2 hours 3 times a week as I did last year, or an hour every morning as I left it when we went away in the heat wave I’m doing 5 minutes every 4 hours. Straight away when I changed there was no more holes under each drip as there had been.
It’s like having a baby, or a lot of babies. I often refer to the vegetables as such.
Which, given I’m no fan of babies and very fond of veg is surprising.
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