The savaging of the old apple tree that threatened to topple over in the Autumn was accomplished a few weeks ago. My professional gardener friend Lady Quercus says it should be all right, but it may concentrate on survival rather than fruiting this coming year, and I will have to look out for lots of sudden new shoots which will need to be dealt with. But as soon as I took the tangled branches off the south side of the tree, the prop I'd put under it fell out, demonstrating how unbalanced it was. I did reposition it, just in case.
The other day I looked back through my old photos for images of Boots, Dr Bones's dog whose loss I described previously, and some of the pictures show the garden too. I see that in 2009, when Boots and the Dr visited for my induction, the gigantic fir and laurel hedge which leads along from the sleeper-steps was just a couple of bushes no more than two feet high. How did it get so colossal without me noticing? How did it creep up on me like that? I did think the winter pruning was all done, but only this week I realised that the laurel bush right at the top of the garden leading into Melpomene's Grove has also turned into a sprawling tree which really needs restraining or its lower bits, which is what I really want, will become ragged and disorganised. So the ladder, saw and pruner have been taken out again. One day I will reduce it all to order, I tell myself!
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