The Mighty Bush

Inspired by the Woolly Green girls I thought I'd share a little piece of advice I was given by two girl friends after work one evening, in the pub (wisdom is always best shared in pubs).

Gentlemen should always prune their front gardens.

Now, thankfully for the urban gentleman, the Woolly Green girls have set out on their fantastic website just the tools one may need for the bushiest of bushes, but more on that shortly.

Back to the pub and of course I left that evening's tavern feeling rather anxious. Why were they telling me this? Had they both seen it? Before you gasp, I am not so proud of it that I show it off to everyone, but it is nice for people to appreciate it every now and again.

Then I remembered that one of them had seen my back garden once! Maybe they were subtly saying I'd let things go back there?

And in truth gardeners, I have. Things continue to go nuts out there and, in particular, this bush really needs pruning:

I do like it, it's a shrub that gives the garden substance and along with shrubs around it has produced shelter to attract the birds and flowers to attract the bees, so no problems on that front. But still, I think it's time for a trim (note the engulfed, unused barbeque, the symptom of a British summer).

I've looked through the Woolly selection of pruning saws, and do have something similar that I used for my work on the apple tree that they kindly mention. But as a novice with shrubs I am a bit nervous that if I trim too much I may end up with a different kind of chaos. And, Woolly girls, if I may say, I think I need to be a bit careful as one slip to the wrong, ahem, branch could prove fatal.

Perhaps I'm better off letting it be. Sometimes letting it grow wild can end up being quite cool eh?