New Horizons
The result was rather pleasing I must say, with much more natural light coming through and at long last the headache of continuously pruning this monster rose was finally over.
It is a little too soon to be over self-congratulatory about the front garden transformation. There remains one more brooding problem to resolve in the form of an old and rather large tree stump festooned in ivy. This stump was the remains of a very old alder tree, which had to be removed; being hollow all the way up, it was in imminent danger of falling over in any high winds. Over the years this has become a very pleasing feature, one even admired by passers by. However, the problem of pruning ivy over 30 feet up in the air is now evident. The ivy's girth has now met the boundary fence and effectively stopped rain getting through to one end of this garden bed. Not only that, but getting the car in and out of the drive is more of a challenge than it used to be.
My original strategy such as it was, centred around pruning any new climbing growths I could see and leave all the highly valued flowering shoots. This seemed to work for a while, but the stump's position at the end of a bed, next to a boundary fence and parallel to a public footpath, meant any overhang of the ivy had to tackled regularly.
Using long-reach pruners and step ladders, this was largely achieved, but the result now is that the overhang extends at least over 4 feet all round. The crown of the ivy is now also beyond all reach, so professional help is now being sought to solve this particular problem. I know for many years this ivy clad tree stump has been the focus for the local wildlife. Squirrels set up camp at the summit, blackbirds and robins nested deep within its cosy dryness and butterflies feasted on the October bonanza of nectar from the ivy flowers.
I feel reducing its height to around 8 or 10 feet would be better that getting rid of it altogether and it would still have its cloak of ivy albeit severely reduced in size. I nervously await a petition from the local wildlife asking for a stay of execution. I share their distress, but the appearance of very large fungal brackets on the lower reaches of the
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