Side Gate

This morning I started to trim back some of the 'established' plants in my front garden. Some should be bushes but have become like full blown hedges. 

When I bought the bungalow the garden looked mature and well planned but in truth it is getting overrun with some bushes dominating others. This started before I took over. 

Having multiples of most of them I can be hard on some this year, allow them to refresh then tackle the others next year. That way it shouldn't look like a massacre all at once. If I get one wrong I'll not do the same to its twin next. The bushes like the Berberis that flower on old wood will miss out this year but not all are being cut back. 

I take encouragement from what I have seen Tom Hart Dyke do each winter in The World Garden. From New Year until now he will cut back nearly everything, sometimes to the ground and sure enough by Easter, when they open the garden, there is plenty of new life. 

My side gate was about the only image I took today that was worth showing. As you can see rain stopped play (thank heavens... )  ;o)