Garden Hack and Slash

We spent parts of this afternoon in the garden. Very exciting.

I find that we must strike while the iron is hot as far as actually getting significant things done. Otherwise we get to dinner time and miraculously somehow nothing has happened. But today it was nice weather and we were in the mood, so out we went.

We have only lived in this house since January, and since we are in the Southern hemisphere, that means this is the first Spring we have seen this garden in. So surprises are arriving every week. There are daffodils and matchheads and crocuses and marigolds and clematis and all sorts of things springing to life. Earlier this week I noticed a very folorn looking blossom tree of some sort
being smothered by some boisterous shrubs. So that was the first thing we did - we reprimanded the shrubs. One came out entirely and the other got trimmed back quite severely. I am very keen to see what sort of tree this turns out to be. Secretly I'm hoping for it to be a fruit tree, but if I hope too loudly it will just turn out to be an ornamental I'm sure...

The next, and most major, item on the agenda was to remove a sycamore from our 'forest corner'. The previous owner of our house had been a keen gardener some years back, but as she aged the garden got more and more out of control. Apparently she spent the last few years in a retirement home and the house was rented out. Consequently the garden was in a sad state when we bought the house. It is still fairly sad I have to say. The 'forest' corner is great - several big trees providing good shelter from the sea winds. But as always happens there are a number of self-sown trees that have been left to grow - and they're quite big now. So the sycamore came out today. And Merl and Miss 3 spent a couple of happy hours feeding the sycamore into the shredder - lots of yummy fodder for the compost heap.

I can't believe how much bigger our yard looks now. There is definitely room for a play house for the kids to be built under those trees. very exciting.