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4 months ago
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It was half a century ago that David Hawson decided he would rather have a hedge than a fence.
But little did he know that his few yew saplings would one day grow into an award-winning topiary menagerie.
Little by little, Mr Hawson has turned his humble garden boundary into an exquisitely-trimmed parade of birds, fish and assorted other animals.
Now his garden masterpiece, in the Aberdeenshire village of Monymusk, has won a national topiary competition.
David Hawson planted the hedge when he moved to the village 50 years ago, but it was only around twenty five years ago he started work on the animals
Crowning glory... this figure of a man has been given a regal makeover
And the 74-year-old was at London’s Hampton Court Palace last weekend to collect his prize... a set of ladders.
Mr Hawson planted the hedge when he and wife Susie moved to the village from Yorkshire 50 years ago.
He said: ‘We never liked fences, which make such a visual statement of “keep out”.
‘We thought a yew hedge would be a friendly and aesthetic way of stopping passing cattle from trampling the flower beds.'
But then Mrs Hawson noticed that the unkempt yew had begun to resemble various sea creatures.
The hedge now features a parade of animals including an owl, a fish and a whale
The hedge runs alongside a road, no doubt providing a treat for those driving past
This bird atop a nest is just one of the many creatures Mr Hawson has fashioned out of his hedge
Mr Hawson said: ‘I had neither the intention nor the skill to do topiary.
‘But it must have been around 25 years ago when I started to help what nature suggested.’
The project began with a fish and then a whale as part of a scene from Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick.
Now the collection has expanded throughout the garden and includes rabbits, a salmon, an owl, a pig, a hen, a mouse, a hedgehog... even a basking shark.
The 74-year-old was crowned winner of the Home Gardener Category at the Henchman's inaugural Topiary Awards in London
Landscape painter Mr Hawson was crowned winner of the Home Gardener category at the inaugural UK Topiary Awards, sponsored by ladder company Henchman.
Welcoming his new set of steps, he said: ‘I will now trim my topiary without wobbling on my old ladder at a great height.’
His creation has been described as ‘brilliant’ by the The Great British Bake-off star Prue Leith, for whom he provided illustrations for a cookbook.
Featuring a photo of his hedge on X, she wrote: ‘When is a hedge not a hedge - when it looks this!!’.
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