EDGES and I go back a long way. Almost 70 years to be precise. The nature of my first encounter? The hedge in question was that much-reviled semi-evergreen we call privet. Its Latin name——does at least give it an air of respectability. It was one of the first botanical names I learned and that aroma of the fresh green clippings my dad would ask me to sweep from the pavement outside our house, twice or three times a year, lingers in my nostrils still.
