Haircut

Nearly as drastic as the one I gave myself recently ..... but this was planned!

I inherited a massive eucalyptus tree when I bought this property.   Planted right up against the boundary, it's exuberance had to be curbed a bit two years ago to protect a neighbour's fence but at that stage I was reluctant to take things further.   With hindsight, it might have been a good idea but a good maxim with gardens is 'give it a year and see what you find.'  In this case it is mostly about light.  I found that the tree cuts out much of the winter sunlight, important for my winter growing bulbs and also nice for me to have the extra rays.   Today we felt that the job really should have been done perhaps five years ago.  After last winter's particularly fierce northerly gales, there was a lot of dead growth both in the more open lower reaches and the upper branches.   So today, the evil deed was done.   The consensus is that as eucalyptus are so resilient, it should make much new growth although it will most likely be several years before a new, lower canopy develops.   Time will tell.

Clearing up and continuing the preparations for greenhouse building took much of the day and most of my energy.   The weather forecast for two of the construction days is dire, my optimism about getting the job finished is low but my friends booked their accommodation before the weather turned so we'll give it our best shot.

Extra pic - the mystery plant from a few days ago revealed as Arisaema candidissimum.  In a genus of grotesques, this is an exception with it's prettily marked hooded flower.