Yes it doesn’t like old hardened growth growth. Once it did get totally stuck so I took the front cover off and had to drill out the branche from around the cog. I have multiple buddleja in my patch of gardens, there’s a big one outside on the patio which gets cut back yearly, unsightly looking thing. I would get rid of it but the birds absolutely love it as there is a tiny pond under it and they perch on the branches to fluff themselves after they’ve had a bath.
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I have that model too. Must be 18 years old now. It’s actually very good. Just need to take one’s time and not force branches into it that are too thick. The next one I buy will be a more powerful one, as I do use it a lot. Definitely won’t be wasting money on a cheap one again.
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We have space enough to allow the prunings to decompose naturally. It produces a very nice light compost, doesn’t take much time to get it on the heap and provides a home for wildlife.
Phil
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The best thing you can do for wildlife is to leave a patch of rough oh and water.
I have discussed this with my neighbour and I am not cutting the back lawn yet, I want it to be full of seeds for birds,
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Biodiversity is very complex and depends on as the name suggests having as much diversity as possible. Many moths and butterflies depend on a single plant for their caterpillars. Apart from cabbage white and aphids I can live with the numerous weeds for a while. I do not use chemicals.
Phil
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I have sown a patch of wild flowers, dug a pond, don’t use chemicals*, have a herb garden for bees, oodles of foxgloves , forget-me-knots, alliums, and numerous visiting birds from sparrow hawk to pheasant to wren in the garden.
I try and speak out for not cutting everything to an inch of it’s life .
Totally agree with you, bio-diversity is what I am trying for.
Best wishes
Ian
- Except for bindweed
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Nothing, birds may still be nesting.
Listen to your HiFi and don’t do anything for a couple of months
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Yes that’s great. I’ve not cut my front lawn while I’ve been furloughed giving the wild flowers a chance to do their stuff. Manicured lawns do look spectacular but for me, wild flowers look so much nicer, more homely. Well, maybe that just my home 
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And then at the end of the autumn / early winter cut the fresh branches out?
I’m not sure that infrequent cutting would work here. If you treat it like a hedge, cutting it little and often means that you are only cutting into fresh foliage, which will come back with healthy new growth. Infrequent cutting tends to mean cutting back into the woody growth underneath, so that you are removing much of the foliage and exposing a bare, twiggy structure which sometimes doesn’t recover to form a healthy covering of new growth.
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I would say from mid -summer onwards, say August
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That’s enough for today.
The need for rain and a visit to a garden centre are quite high.
I know it looks a bit organised but it full fills something
Lots of diversity at the bottom of the cul de sac.
Gotcha muntjac deer,stinging nettles and at least one thousand copulating pigeons. Do they ever stop?
N
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You need to get yourself a sparrow hawk 
Stinging nettles are good for caterpillars .
Yes, we have one of those. It prefers the pigeons.
Phil
I had one for one day last year. I was working in my home office and looked through the window and I saw a relatively small predatory bird - one I never saw before and I did not know. Looked it up, and indeed it was one. Loads of buzzards out of town, but the sparrow hawk is not seen often.
I don’t really like pigeons since they seem to be lazy and hijack nests.
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Think I have just seen a Hobby if so, it would be the first time
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Here’s a gardening tool that’s transformed what was once a major chore into something that is almost a pleasure. It’s the HLA65 long reach hedge trimmer from the Stihl pro battery powered series. Apart from making accurate trimming on these Laurels easy, it swathes through 110m long, 2m high dense hawthorn hedge like it wasn’t there. I bought FSA90 strimmer at the same time (2 years ago) as both tools use the same 36v battery. Both perform as well as petrol powered machinery but weigh an awful lot less. An added bonus is they’re almost silent which also makes them way more pleasant to use.
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Thats what I need! I have 100m hedges and they get higher every year & I don’t get longer anymore.
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We’ve already had the well trimmed bush joke, didn’t go down too well
So won’t mention it again 
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