14th June 2020
It was work on the garden day, the weather was good and my loppers were sharp.
The target was a large forsythia bush, it was out of control after years of neglect. We had watched videos on pruning techniques and instantly forgot all of them.
The bush hadn’t flowered this year and was full of dead wood.
I started small, focusing on the old wood first. That made a difference straight away, but then emphasised the tallness where the leaves were, and the woodiness where there was nothing.
We discussed if we should go the whole hog and cut everything back to the stump. Kelli was concerned about the wild birds that used the bush to hang out and fly between it, and our holly bush. In the end the full cut was chosen. Kelli couldn’t bare to look as I snipped away. When she saw the result she burst into tears, not a reaction I usually get doing work around the house, but she was afraid the birds would leave and find somewhere else to congregate. But the job was done, I was left with a huge pile of branches to cut up and dump in our temporary green tip.
I left a few shoots just to mark where the tree was, and knowing the forsythia it will soon start to show shoots, just like the butchered lilac is doing.
We finished the small skinny dresser, and that went on Marketplace only to be snapped up a few minutes later to a person a stones throw away, so a good result all round, even if the birds don’t have a place to rest.
Another Lifetime to go 