Vetiver hedges, neat and trim(med)!

All of us recognize Vetiver's effectiveness in many applications. It's certainly a workhorse! However, while appreciating Vetiver's subterranean abilities, some customers want their new resource to be smart AND beautiful--all the time! Vetiver in neatly trimmed hedges presents itself as a lovely ornamental, and it can easily be maintained as such.

Posting his review of a particularly sharp hedge trimmer, a law professor in LA reported: "We had a problem. We planted 500 running feet of Vetiver grass for hillside retention. Vetiver is great for bio-engineering, in our case retaining a steep hillside, but when Vetiver is fully established, we found it too tough to cut with a Fiskars hedge shears. So we tried a power hedge trimmer, which broke the grass instead of cutting it cleanly. Then we discovered that the Japanese make hedge shears with really sharp blades. So we ordered this ARS model (ARS 28- to 41-1/2-Inch Hedge Shears HS-K900Z, Ed.). The blades are razor-sharp. The tool is light; the handles are excellent. And best of all, the shears did a great job on our Vetiver hedges."