Old trees.

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What do you do when an old tree inevitably dies? Yes – the big one.

Can you imagine what I felt when the tree you can see again here, immediately to the right of the red Acer, was on the way out?

My first reaction when my lovely Photinia ‘Redstart’ had a few dead branches was to try to save it – sadly, to no avail.

Eventually it had to go. OH had a real job first taking the tree down branch by branch, then the main trunk – and then attempting to dig out the roots, which were massive and stretched out in every direction.

I am sorry I didn’t take a ‘during’ or ‘after’ photo, but I’m sure you can imagine a large patch of rough earth with a big hole in it, lots and lots of ivy and some brambles as well. A bit of a horror story!

What next? No point grieving over an old tree – use the opportunity and get planning, of course. Look at my ‘wish list’ – and start tracking down plants and trees. It was going to be a huge project.

I think I spent two solid weeks digging, getting rid of ivy and inevitably hitting roots. Poor OH was kept busy with his loppers, after plaintive cries of ’Here’s another one!’ – sometimes they were too big for loppers and he had to lever them up with a pick axe and use his chain saw on them.

Of course, a tree that had been ‘in situ’ for years had drained the soil of nutrients, so I must have dug in at least ten barrow loads of compost. I collected several buckets of huge stones.

Then the fun part – ordering and receiving lovely parcels of plants, and visiting the Garden Centre with my list.

The trees came in huge containers which I could hardly lift – I dug the holes and OH helped me plant them. I chose a Malus floribunda and a Cornus Kousa ‘China Girl’, plus an unusual tree I’d seen in an Open Garden called Buddleja colvelei.

They had to go in first, so I had placed upturned flower pots to mark where they were to be planted. Then, as I collected smaller perennial plants, I put them into position before I planted them.

In the front are three roses – ’You’re Beautiful’ with Geum ‘Bell Bank’ and Geranium ’Johnson’s Blue’.

What else is in the bed? At the side is a beautiful Cytisus ‘Zeelandia’ which is getting elderly, but I love it.

I tried to save some of the Centaurea montana, which may or may not survive the move.

At the other side is an Amelanchier tree and the red Acer, alongside an anonymous rose I inherited. I took out most of a very old and non-flowering Honeysuckle from the fence and planted a new one – Lonicera x tellmanniana. In the middle of the bed is a Lavatera ‘Baby Barnsley’ with three Campanula ‘Iridescent Bells’, and a Buddleja alternifolia ‘Unique’.

I was lucky on one trip to the GC – they had one Mertensia virginica.

I surrounded it with Viola ‘Freckles’.

There are Aquilegia, Anemone blanda which I saved, and I have a barrow load of little plants to go in once I’ve planted a Clematis Montana on that ugly fence. The messy leaves on the right are snowdrops – lovely in early spring.

So here I am – quite pleased that the new area is taking shape and looking more like a flower bed every day. Oh, and I have re-seeded the bare edge!

Maybe it was a blessing in disguise to lose that tree?

• 13 Apr, 2017
• 15 likes

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