Precision box of tricks

HERE'S a man who likes to live on the hedge - Dr Paul Everden has been crowned the country's top amateur topiarist.

- By Faye Mayern

His 17th-century house barely had a garden when he moved in but, 35 years on, Paul and wife Sian have transformed it into a precision-cut topiary haven.

The Grade II-listed Old Manor Farmhouse, near Swanton Hill in Norfolk, hosts stunning displays of evergreen plants clipped into exotic shapes with Paul calling his “cloud-like”.

He recently won the Home Gardener category at the annual Henchman Topiary Awards but Paul admitted: “When I first started topiary, I didn’t know what I was doing.”

The couple had no previous gardening experience so had to learn as they went along. Paul said: “It requires stringing very accurate lines for the patterns, and the appeal was that accuracy of planting and cutting.