So, it is pruning season in Australia... apparently, from my internet green-thumb degree, the end of winter and the start of spring is the time to do it. And there are quite a few of the bushes and small trees in our garden that are due for a really heavy pruning... or a dose of heavy tough love!

Anyway, when we first moved into our place... it was hideously overgrown. After a good chunk of clearing... we are left with a better idea of what might go where... and the plan for the garden starts to take shape. We kept a few of the healthier plants... small trees and bushes, but there were more than a few small trees that came down as well.

However, a lot of these stronger plants were weirdly formed... mostly with top heavy growth as they were competing quite heavily with all the other plants around... and at the bottom, there was more competition for light.

So, a little tour of today's hack and slash... this particular tree was attacked quite heavily by caterpillars last year and lost quite a lot of its leaves. We are planning to have a climbing cover on the enclosed area, and this area will also be host to lavender bushes. My wife isn't really sure whether or not this tree will survive the replanning. So, I was given the okay to slash it down to size in order to try and reshape the plant.

This is another dubious one near the front... I think it will grow into a proper tree, but for the moment, it has shoots growing in all directions. I think it is really due for a proper trim to shape it a bit... as you can quite easily see, there are many shoots that are bending downwards due to the weight of the leaves upon the tender new growths.

This was another one that has grown quite weirdly... lots of high growth, but very little on the metre or metre and half from the ground... so, I'm going to try and chop off the tops to see if I can encourage more lower growth...

My wife trimmed these ones last year... but they have also suffered the same problem... lots of top heavy growth, and nothing down lower... so, as she was pulling out the driveway, she yelled out for me to hack these right down to the ground to see if they will resprout.

... this was the one other one that was marked for a new restart.

It's pretty severe, but there has been a few that have had something similar done to them by my father-in-law, and they are now sprouting nice new growth that will be easier to reshape!

I do wonder if I should have been stronger with the cutting here...

Lots of new branches to send through the shredder later... I just need to remember not to handle the spiky ones! They don't shred well... and they rip up my hands! And this was only half the morning's stuff... the pile was a good chunk bigger an hour later!

This was the other one, that was near the carport.

... and this was the one that was near the future lavender bush site!

Sigh... the weeding at the back is endless, it is mostly open area at the moment... so, prime weed growing area. I think that we should make a start on planting the fruit trees... but I think my wife wants to level the area first? Or complete the retaining wall?.... well, in any case, I spend quite a few hours every fortnight with the whiper-snipper, lawn-mower, and hand tools... cutting grass and weeding out the weeds. I feel like it is a bit of wasted time... but until we decide what to do, it will be a recurring task!

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