I’m a gardening pro and my top tip will clear your garden of hedge killing pests for free

LOOK very carefully in your box hedges right now, and you might see a tiny green and yellow caterpillar surrounded by webbing.

If that’s the case - unlucky. There’s every chance this is one of the last times you’ll see your Box, or ‘Buxus sempervirens’ alive. 

Box leaf Caterpillars have started to feed, and they can decimate hedges in the length of a long weekend.

Arriving in the UK in 2007, by 2014 the box moth and caterpillar were happily wreaking hell in UK gardens.

Add to this the seasons of Box Blight that preceded it, only a truly dedicated gardener will take on a Buxus now.

It’s hugely time consuming and costly to get rid of the caterpillars and they can return in the blink of an eye.

So instead of wasting your precious gardening time, how about replacing it with hedging that looks and feels similar, but isn’t anywhere near as susceptible to blight and pests. 

RHS Wisley Curator Matthew Pottage ripped out nearly all the box at Wisley when he took over nine years ago. There’s just one cultivar left called ‘Bowle’s Blue’ which is larger leafed and less interesting to caterpillars. 

Instead he’s been trialling a variety of box alternatives since 2015.

He told Sun Gardening: “Life’s too short to be spraying for caterpillars, and picking them off by hand.

"At Wisley we’re all about planting something else and what else can do that service for you. The final plants that ended up in our trial were vigorous ones that could handle close clipping. 

"One of the top successes for us at Wisley has been Taxus bacatta ‘Repandens’. It’s no secret that Yew can be clipped, but Repandens is a lower, slower growing cultivar, and it's not throwing up lots of leaders because it wants to be a tree. If you're a purist, this is for you.