When we first planted this Salix integra, it was small and neat, as ornamental trees should be. We bought it more for the price (cheap) and the purpose (to fill a gap in the corner of the garden), rather than for any sort of design reason. My garden design ethos is what you might call slapdash. I love gardening, but am not very patient at plotting and planning. I'd rather buy something, and put it in a gap regardless of how big it's going to grow or what colour its going to be. The garden would work much better if we lived in an old cottage somewhere, rather than on a new estate.
I think my neighbours hate me.
The flamingo tree grew and grew, and I always missed that window of opportunity for pruning, so instead of the small, neat, ornamental tree it should be; it now overhangs the fence into next-door, and gets tangled up in the washing line. I've seen my next-door neighbour patiently clipping back the bit that hangs over the fence all summer long, and have felt very sorry for him.
On inspection, I found the branches were so thick that any pruning shears I had weren't going to make a dent on it, so I got the saw out, and hacked away until it was nowhere near the top of the fence. I then had to hack all the pieces I'd sawn off into manageable sections which would fit into our green-waste collection bags.
It looks much better now, and I can't wait to see it in bloom.
Before:
After:
Mission complete.
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