Before-and-After's

Pretty self-explanatory stuff, but I'm in the job market and it helps to show I can do what I say I can, otherwise you might find some Knight of the Realm lying to a Tribunal that I can't or something, which would surely upset Her Madge? Perish the thought...

Pruning a Wall-Climbing Rose

A couple of before and afters, I'm afraid the pictures are awful, but the CCD (or whatever it's called) on my camera is failing, however, if I put them up here I can email to ask Fuji what the hell's going on with my less than three-year-old pile of expensive scrap plastic? And before they answer they can come and look at this!

The ticking clock of my employment here is this rose which was my first job, the day after we moved-in and which we've just cut for the third time, the photograph really is bad, but you can see how bushy the rose gets by the end of the autumn. This was taken about three weeks ago?

This was taken on Friday (the camera actually TRIED this time!), a good 85% goes, you take out a couple of the old woody shoots at the base, follow them through to the ends, and once you've pulled it all back down through itself and the wiring you can see what you need to do to shape it.

This year we actually took a lot off, as there were several strong new shoots growing strait-up from the base in a close bunch which are now fanned-out in the center (about five of the nine you can see). It looks harsh but you know what they say..."Let your enemy prune your roses".

Basic Topiary

It was almost too hot to garden today, but it makes for lighter work if you manage to accomplish something which is more pleasing to the eye afterward than when you started...

Two little box-tree step guardians get their annual haircut, I've made a start on the left hand one, taking about two-and-a-half inches back, basically taking-off the matt, herb-green new growth and taking it back to the gloss olive-green old leaves.

Job done!

The Tools...

A rose, by any other name, is still a thorny bastard

Well, I finally tackled my first bird's nest! This thing (I'll try and find out what it's actually called - Latin/Linean, not common, I know it's a moss-rose!) has thorns on it as close together as the hairs on a Kiwi fruit, but much longer and much stiffer! I hardly ever wear gloves in the garden, I just can't be doing with them, I like to keep in touch with what I'm doing, even if it means I have to constantly super-glue the cracks in my right thumb and forefinger until they heal (Hey, try it - it works!), but for this I did wear gloves on and off, mostly the left hand to hold while I worked with the right, but it was three weeks ago and I'm still getting thorns out of both hands!!

The before photograph, the trick is to work very slowly, first take the whole thing apart, untie everything and pull out all the remains of the old frame (which was a couple of years old, this was given a half-a-job last year) and any fallen dead wood, at the same time cut-out any dead and weedy bits from this year.

Once it's all loose, divide it into four bunches and hold them out of the way with a bit of wood, then build the new frame. I used fresh-cut hazel and went for a basket of overlapping sticks, this left four arches that were in tension with each other and in compression with themselves (I knew that bridge-building project in First Year Architecture would come in useful one day!).

Then working round the bush, cut last years growth back to the longest of this years shoots, pull the shoot under the edge of the frame, then up-and-over and finally down across the basket and tie in. After you've had the best two or three from each of you four bundles, you'll realise you've still got far too much and you can start cutting some right out. Start with those that are silvery lower down, those that have short or weedy new shoots, and then those that won't bend over very gracefully or that will snap if they're bent that far, you'll be left with the rest of the good ones which you use to 'fill the gaps'.

It took about 4 hours. I'll post it again when it's in bloom.