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Topiary Elephants Troop into Wales
• Masai Mara Game Reserve Inspires Welsh Gardener
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By
Ye Minxe
Thursday,
2 July, 2009
OK so it is a flight of fantasy rather than a folly but what a flight!
Inspired by a visit to the Masai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya, Brecon resident Gavin Hogg has sculpted the overgrown hedge around his garden into a herd of topiary elephants.
Mr Hogg spent two days crafting the seven adults and three babies with a trimmer, shears and a pair of scissors for the fiddly bits.
The result is a striking 100ft-long trail of green elephants that stretches around the corner of his family home outside Brecon in Mid Wales
Mr Hogg said: It was just a normal, fairly boring box hedge when I started. I found a picture of a group of elephants and set about shaping it. Time seemed to disappear while I was working on it.
I was able to create the appearance of folds in the skin and shadow lines for shoulder blades and hips.
I also clipped an eye in some of the adult elephants to give it greater authenticity. It was a lot of work and the ears and trunks were a bit tricky but I am pleased with the end result.
Father-of-two Mr Hogg and his wife Vina, who visited the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya, farm organic vegetables at their 17th century home.
He added: Its great to see our own herd of elephants every time we look out of the window, even if they are green. They will need a haircut twice a year to smarten them up. But they will be a permanent feature.
The topiary elephants are cut out of a hedge of common box (Buxus sempervirens) which was planted about 200 years ago.
(This story first appeared in the Daily Mail on 2 July 2009)
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