Barn Wall Pruning Work.

Today we have been doing some pruning work along the barn wall and border. This is work that continues on from the tree pruning that we did last week.

First job was to tidy up the Ivy on the wall to the steps. The Ivy is under control so it was just a matter of trimming the side and then taking back last years growth. I don't know if you can see in the picture but there are some nice wrought iron rails above the Ivy.  

I think it makes quite a difference to the look of the place once done.

As we move along the wall there are some Dogwoods and a Pyracantha that need pruning. There are several other shrubs as well but they can't be pruned just yet as it would cut off this years flowers.

I just cut the Dogwoods back to last years cut and removed any dead or weak growth. The Pyracantha has to have a degree of training as well as a prune. There are a couple of interesting features in the wall that I don't want to cover so it has to be trained to the wall but around the obstacles. 

This year I added a loop around the statue in the wall, I think you can just make it out if you look close. I now need to get a shoot growing off to the left of that loop to balance things out. Also in this picture you can see a Euonymus to the left of the Pyracantha, this was also given a bit of a trim. As you can see I still have the Dogwood prunings to pick up and cart away as I ran out of time. The Euonymus can be grown as a shrub but as there isn't enough room for that I've trained it to grow flat against the wall. The chunk that's missing out of the left hand side is where some non gardening person decided to install a bird box. I expect it will fill in again with time.

Pruning Afternoon

This afternoon we had a bit of a pruning session in one of the shrub borders. I say pruning but it was a bit of a mixture of proper pruning with some clipping. I prefer to prune for a more natural look but some of the shrubs such as the Berbris lend them selves to clipping where as the buddleia's get a proper pruning. We finished off by putting everything through the shredder and returned it back to the border It was a nice day for it, dry and quite warm in the sunshine.

Below are a couple of before and after pictures.

Restoring The Balance.

 We had cause to try and save this tree recently. It got pulled over by the weight of the snow that we had a few weeks back. It was virtually blocking the entrance to the wedding barn so if I could if I couldn't get it back under control it was going to have to be removed which would have been a shame.

Thankfully I was able to save it and at the same time keep it looking respectable.

This is a side view before the work began. Apart from blocking the doorway it was also covering a border.

This is the same side view after the work was done. People can once again walk under it without having to duck or bang their heads.

This the view from the other side and gives a better idea of how far it came away from the wall.

Here is the finished article. It's still away from the wall but I've managed to get a certain balance to it so that hopefully it will reestablish it's self with time.

A Bit More Ivy Trimming

There hasn't been a lot to report this past few days as I must confess to having been taking it easy due to feeling a bit under the weather. I'm not a doctor or anything so I'm not going to blame the covid jab that I had but the day after having it I've been having this underlying tiredness about me plus aching and shivers. It almost feels like I'm coming down with a bad case of the flu but it never develops into anything further. I rested up for a while and it went away and then last weekend it came back again. I feel like I am much recovered again this morning so I will try not to take on to much for the rest of the week and hopefully see the back of it as I need to get things done.

Anyway here is one of the jobs we managed to get done. Another Ivy trimming job. I cut this all back last year so it was just a maintenance trim just to bring it back to the desired level. 

In the picture below you can see that in just one year the growth has covered the gap to the top of the wall and is also growing over the top.

These are the tools that I find useful for Ivy trimming plus the hedge cutter or a pair of garden shears to clip the face of it if need be. In this instance there were only a few long ends that I nipped off with the pruners which is why there is no hedge cutter in the picture. The pruners are an old pair as they can get abused a bit scraping away and the stone work and what have you.

This is the finished article. We also pruned the roses in the border once the Ivy was cleared and then we weeded and forked the soil 

Ivy Trimming In The Courtyard.

Yesterday we managed to get one of the annual jobs in the Courtyard completed. To be honest it was all my own work as the head gardener decided to take a day off after bird feeding duties had been undertaken. Anyway there are places where Ivy is allowed to grow on walls  so every year it needs to be trimmed to keep it under control. I know some people pull faces about Ivy being allowed to grow but I find that provided it's kept under control then it can add something to the look of the place. Just the same as anything else really, if it's allowed to get out of control then it becomes a nuisance. When done every year is an easy enough job of trimming up the face of it with a hedge cutter and then snipping around the outline with a pair of hand pruners. I also use a paint scraper to unstick it from whatever it's growing up.

Below are some before and after pictures of a couple of the main area's tidied up yesterday.

These first two pictures were take from our upstairs window. 

North Front Pruning Work.

 This week we have been busy doing some work on the North Front. We spent two days cutting back a rambling rose and some Holly trees, all of which have grown out of control. The main reason for the pruning was so that repair work can be carried out to the wall at the back of the border as it's in danger of falling down. It's proved to be quite a job and even though I knew it wouldn't be easy it was more of a job than I thought. Anyway that is all done and the rubbish disposed of.

Today I managed to get the roses in the North Front rose border pruned and the rubbish carted off before the rain started which is another good job taken care off. I would like to get the soil forked over some time too but I think things are going to get a bit wet over the next few days.

The Holly trees and rose due to get a pruning.

Another view of the cutting back job.

This is another little job I want to get done while in the area. There is a little path that squeezes down the side of the rose border but it has become over grown with this shrub so it too is getting a trim.

A view from the back.

The head gardener reviewing the work to be carried out.

Rose Pruning In The Rose Garden.

 Thursday and Friday last week I managed to get the roses pruned in the rose garden. It's something I like to try and do at this time of year mainly because it reduces them in size therefore I don't have to worry about the wind bashing them around all winter. I could sort of give them a half prune and then give them a proper pruning in the new year but I don't fancy going over them twice and I have to say that I've never had any trouble caused by pruning them now and in actual fact I find that they will get going earlier by pruning now. I would like to get the beds forked over as well if I can but we will have to see about that as I have lots of other work waiting to be done at the moment.

I've heard reports that they are going to be starting work on converting the old stable block into accommodation for the bed and breakfast soon, probably in the new year now so that should be something to keep an eye on.