Work in progress…

 

We have been here 20 years and everything in the garden has grown. Oh boy, how it has grown. I’m sure all my gardening friends out there will know the feeling. Suddenly when you look around it is like a jungle, or maybe the triffids are taking over. The palms are reaching for the electricity lines and blocking the light from a large part of the garden, and stopping the winter sun getting to the house.

Time for a major change. I talk Jack, with difficulty, into getting a quote for a landscape person to thin the palms. In the past we have always done our own pruning. BUT, when we got the quote Jack said “tell them they’re dreaming, we will do it ourselves…”.

So that is what we have been doing for the past few days.Jack attacked the palms with gusto, and the pile of palm fronds grew…

Some went through the mulching machine. Some of the straighter trunks we kept for another project.

But for the majority we had to order a rubbish skip to take it away.It just managed to fit on the drive. But that’s not all. Once Jack has a pruning tool in his hand there is no stopping him. There was a bit of room still in the skip so now to tackle another overgrown area in the back garden.This is the area behind the ponds. Jack is attacking a paw paw tree. It is a male and does not produce fruit, so out it comes. The staghorn is hanging on to a very rotten stump of an old palm that was cut down years ago and is finally disintergrating. So down it comes and the staghorn is going to be relocated.

The steps have been cleared, they were overgrown with Agaves. Now it is almost a blank canvas. The Heliconia has been allowed to stay and we have plans to put more easy care plants back here. But that is for another day.

 

We just managed to fit all the fronds and trunks in. It took 2 days to get them all down, but finally Jack is able to put the saw away.4 days later and it is collected. Mission accomplished.

Before on the left, see how close the fronds are to the power lines. After on the right, you can now see the power pole and the big tree in the neighbours property across the road.Before and after. Unfortunately the panorama went a bit wonky on the after. The “Serenity Seat” has lost its privacy. But a young Wattle bush is planted in the space in front of the seat. They are quick-growing and now it has seen the light I’m sure it will soon take over.

These very tall palms have come down, and now the Snowflake bush has room to breath.

So it is still a work in progress as now we have to replant all the bare spaces. The garden has lost its tropical, jungle look, but, when it warms up and if we have rain, things grow fast in this climate.