Another pruning project

This was a garden project in two parts.

The first one was when I waded into this difficult part of the garden with my loppers and secateurs.

And then the second was when I stood on my deck from the office to snap the ‘Ta Da’ finished project… and couldn’t even tell if I had actually done the work.

I hauled wheelbarrow loads of prunings out of this space.

So I had to go back one more time and take even more branches off the shrubs. And that baby oak tree.

And finally I can say, pruning done.

It still looks like a mess. But I can see its potential.

I cut back the oak tree, the deutzia and removed the ailing non-flowering lilac.

This is the part of the garden I inherited seventeen years ago. And there is nothing more scruffy than shrubs that have turned into trees.

This narrow bed next to the guest house used to contain a white lilac, a white deutzia (mock orange) and numerous rockery shrubs also white. Planted very close together.

The heyday of this particular ‘look’?

About 2010.

I dug deep into the files to try and find a fetching picture of the shrubs…

But things looked rather ropey from the get go.

I was surprised to see that the something looked to have been planted there in the 1970s.

By 2019 I had battled a bit further. But the oaks behind were already shading the space.

And the word ‘overgrown and underpuned’ seemed to have been the theme ever since.

And I have been the culprit for the past decade.

I’m trying to let the ivy win.

I just don’t go up there into the narrow bed and try and tame things.

For the past three years I have been wondering if the white lilac would come back at all.

I seem to recall it was never a good flowering beauty.

Well, it used to flower prettily for a few weeks and then all too soon the way too tall blooms went brown and mucky.

I used to drive past hedges of beautiful lilacs and just yearn for some elegance.

And I have gradually accepted that if I can’t tame the shrubs I’ll plant ornamental grasses instead. They glow in the evening light.

And are much better behaved. The stipa giganteas don’t get pruned at all.

And I’m adding in more of the purples in the form of cotinus, hazelnuts and a deep, rich buddleja.

And the phlomis and lavenders help.

But those are just the distracting pretties..

The oak and the much reduced in size deutzia will have to anchor the left end of the bed from now on.

And I’d much rather admire a stonking big oak tree in the garden instead of fussy shrubs.

Loppers and secateurs won’t get a look in with that massive tree.