Yew

Block of yew up the garden path

The yew hedge was such an easy thing to install when I first moved in here 30 years ago. All I did was buy three small hedging plants in black plastic pots from Columbia Road Market. I suppose I prepared the soil and probably added a bit of bone meal and then popped them in the ground. I was told that yew was slow growing but when young they go at quite a good pace and mine put on about a foot of growth a year so by three years they were not hugely tall but very sturdy and quite a presence. The hedge now measures about 6ft tall by 12ft wide.

This is Taxus baccata, English yew, not to be confused with Irish yew (Taxus baccata fastigiata) which is  more columnar and has a yellowish tint. I wanted the deep green of English yew. It has definitely added a very special quality to the garden dividing this long narrow strip effectively,  providing a contrasting  backdrop to the silvery cardoon and deep red roses near it and creating a pleasing block of greenery in winter. It also offers food and protection to all sort of little creatures all through the year.  

Things are getting a bit shaggy in the garden just now, from the lawn which has had no mowing to the privets and pyracantha which have not been clipped. Everything needs a haircut - like me. I can't reach many of the shrubs with my secateurs but the top of the yew is just within my reach and yesterday I took my sturdy Felcos and managed to clip it back, front, top and sides in a couple of hours. It's looking almost well groomed. 

Nearly finished clipping!

As well as being one of the mainstays of this garden's design, yew is a fascinating tree with many sides to its character. Most of it is poisonous. Surprisingly, to me, the only edible part is the bright red berry - but not the seed inside it.  

Nevertheless, lots of small birds and creatures including foxes do eat the berries, having learned to spit out the seeds. Many birds like to nest amongst its dense twigs and foliage where they can safely see out without being seen.

Two views of the yew hedge 

  

 

Two chemotherapy drugs have been developed from yew trees, Docetaxel and Paclitaxel. Some UK companies used to collect clippings from gardeners as part of the process of making these drugs but they are not doing that anymore because both can now be made synthetically in a lab. 

As I can't donate my yew clippings to medicine, I spread the short green ones in layers on the compost heap where they will break down easily within a year. My grandson cut the hedge down by a couple of feet last year -  it had grown far too tall - he then stacked up the woody bits at the back of the shed as a winter shelter for creatures and I used the longer sticks, when they had dried out, as plant supports. 

I try to remember to mulch the hedge once a year. I never water it and it flourishes in spite of all the neglect. I've tried several times to grow small plants at its feet, dead nettles, for example, but the one that has succeeded is the wild cyclamen (C. hederifolium) which thrives in the dark dryness.