19-10-2018
Beautiful sunshine and mild weather are upon us and turn autumn planting and other garden work into a treat.
The apple tree, like its older siblings, is hanging on to its leaves for another while. There’s no more new growth now. Plant parts are maturing, the wooden stem is toughening for the coming winter.

Ivy is in flower now, later than usual. It’s buzzing with bees and other insects. Apparently ivy pollen is very good food for bees. Some bee keepers harvest honey produced from ivy pollen specifically, while other bee keepers leave that honey in the hives to help bees through the winter.

To my delight, a few clients asked me recently whether their shrubs that had previously been trimmed into round shapes could be pruned to look more natural. Yes, that’s possible, of course, even though re-naturalizing a shrub has to be done over the course of a few years.
The constant close trimming of the shrub, year after year, causes branches to grow in a very dense way, often crossing over each other and twisting. Very little light reaches the centre of the shrub. New growth is limited to the visible “surface” of the plant.
While lots of shrubs can tackle constant trimming really well, another option is to prune in a way that lets light and air into the centre of the shrub, gives each branch space to stretch and unfold and lets the shrub find a more natural shape.

Photos: Braeburn apple tree; ivy flower with wasp; re-naturalized Pittosporum.