Can you spy a panda?

No, I am NOT suggesting Compostman is like a panda! But...we have a HUGE thicket of rampant Bamboo which we need to sort out.

So..the Allen Scythe was brought into action along with various hand tools, to cut down the thicket of bamboo.

This is the pile of cut bamboo canes after less than half of the growth has been cut down,.

The bamboo is so rampant - it is taking over a huge area

  and we have to stop it spreading so drastic pruning is needed.

I have offered the canes to our local Wildlife Trust and also the Play rangers who work with them, so hopefully lots of bug houses and dens will get built all over Herefordshire as a result of our "pruning"

Pruning - Compost Mansions style!

Some 30 m of the very over mature, very dead and tangled up front fence shrubbery. We spent yesterday morning doing this -

a lot of the bigger tree shrubs were felled at the weekend and dragged round to the sawing area  by the wood so we can get any firewood off them - there is a big bonfire patch there for twiggy material we do not either save for firewood or use as habitat piles etc - but all this tangled jasmine, rose, honeysuckle etc was no use for anything other than burning so that is what we did.

The ash will be collected up today and will go on the compost heaps or as a dust bath for the hens.

Compostman clears the hedge!!

No he HAS NOT been inspired by showjumping to jump over it!!! Our front fence has a lot of shrubs and trees growing along it and it has all got rather overgrown and untidy with clematis and honeysuckle creepers

So....compostman decided to sort it all out ( with a bit of help from me)

here is a before picture



and a during picture
and an after picture


and just some of the stuff he removed!!

Apple tree pruning and other tree stuff..........

This fine, dry weather has made the sap start to rise in the trees!! and has made pruning the apple trees an imperative...so today compostman and I were doing just that!!




and felling a Silver Birch inthe garden which had gotten a little TOO huge..and was overshadowing the fruit trees and vegetable garden...so sadly it had to come down

Still it made lots of lovely logs for the woodburner and lots of lovely shreddings for the compost bins and as mulch in the garden!!

No wonder I feel tired!!

Have just completed a major overhaul of the "Bamboo" shrub bed.


Here are some pictures of the hard work, I have not pruned and cleared this bed to this extent for 7 years as I have either been too unwell or too busy or the weather has been too dreadful in previous years.....but this year the weather is kind, I am feeling a little stronger day to day AND am actually ahead of the outside jobs list for once!!




So.......I dived in armed with loppers and the shredder, to tackle the very overgrown Bamboo...and rake up all the dead stuff...and prune the various shrubs back into some semblance of submission....

















And this is the end result...for now at least! I have to fork it all over and plant up some Crocosmia Masonorum and various Cordylines and Lavenders and other plants, but for now....Job Done!!!