Hard pruning the santolina

1santolina to cut backFrom a distance it looks fetching. Lovely purples and greys and greens and blues.

May is definitely the best time in the barn garden.

But if your eye heads towards the apple tree in the middle of the long narrow path you can see a tall and large grey santolina shrub.

And mindful of the mess I thought I had made of the santolinas on the right hand side of the path, I have decided to act early this year.

Here is the beast. And you can see there is plenty of new growth inside the plant. It makes it easy for me to work out where to prune.

Off comes last year’s growth.1santolina cut

It is a matter of moments. And boy does it looks like I’ve messed up.

It’s worse than a poodle parlour accident. A very sorry sight.

1santolinpruningsI hurriedly collected all the prunings, loaded my wheelbarrow and swiftly walked away.

If all goes well the plant will recover over the next few weeks. But for now you can be assured I will be eyes right every time I walk along this path, trying to avoid catching sight of my eyesore pruning job.