A Gentleman Spent 10 Years Turning 150-Ft-Long Hedge Into A Giant Dragon

Meet Mr.

Brooker in the video below.

Video Credit: Ed Norfolk

If you ever visit in the U.K. and you spot a giant green dragon, don’t be scared – it’s just hedge sculpture by John Brooker who spent 10 years shaping this 150-ft-long hedge into a giant dragon. He got bored of looking at a straight hedge, who turned a long hedge by his home into a giant green dragon.

He said “I was tired of looking at a straight hedge, to be honest. It was pretty boring after a couple of years, and I thought, I’d cut the top into some arches, and then I thought, ‘what am I going to do at the end?’ Gotta have a head on it. And then I thought, ‘It’s going to be a dragon.” And he did this tough task without anybody’s help.

The retired fan maker used four electric hedge trimmers to climb a pair of 6ft-high (1.8m) stepladders to sculpt the top.

“The farmer here is horrified when he sees me perched on top of the ladders,” said Mr. Brooker.

“My wife is the gardener, I just cut the lawn and do the hedge,” he said.

“She was pleased though as she has something interesting to look at.

“I think the dragon came from my days in the Army. I did two tours in Malaysia so the dragon must have been in my subconscious.”

His wife Pippa, a former graphic designer, helps to guide the design, which is constantly refined.

“I’ve added wings and the top was quite plain but every year I add another couple of lines for definition,” he said.

“I was always told by my math teacher that I had a good eye for drawing a curve.

“There is a sense of what is right when your hand moves. Very rarely have I cut out something I wanted to keep.”

Topiary art, also known as the art of trimming and growing hedges into beautiful designs, is a beautiful and creative ancient craft that is perfect for anyone who loves to design and fond of topiary art. The art originated in ancient Egypt and Persia, later spreading to Rome as well. The craft also evolved in Japan and China, although there it is practiced differently.

Here are the pictures!