Six on Saturday: Slimming and Trimming

About ten days ago we moved from our rented house into a cottage that we now own in the small rural town of Tapanui, Clutha District, South Island, New Zealand. Exciting move for us as we haven’t owned for a while now. (Note: In NZ it is currently autumn)

One. I soon found the washing line was being shaded out by the nearby walnut tree. My husband Nigel took to the walnut tree with pruning saw on Friday and radically thinned it out, sawing off one or two whopper branches in the process. I’ve already devoted my post Walnut and Washing to the walnut thinning. It’s now looking nice and light where the washing line is.

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Two.  In the above photo you can also see the results of Nigel moving on yesterday to further trimming on the western edge of our section (i.e. Saturday). Although we do need shelter from westerly winds we sure don’t want the excessive shading from the afternoon sun. I took the photo below on Saturday before he started work, you can see how dense the trees are.

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Three. Late Sunday morning I slipped outside to photograph what Nigel was doing yesterday on the western boundary, before he cleans up. We very much like Blue Atlantic Cedars (Cedrus atlantica glauca) and intend to keep them. The Chamaecyprus isn’t suitable in the long term as it grows too dense and fast – it’ll eventually get taken out.

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Four.  A few olive trees are already growing here and we really like this one which has a nice shape and is growing well, and has little olives dotted about all over the branches. It’s the best olive tree as it’s in a position with the best drainage.

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Five.  I’m fond of the golden foliage on the golden macrocarpa tree at the front of our house (which faces south i.e. the cold side of the property in NZ). Again this is a tree that grows big, dense and fast, and its fate is sealed – it will be removed. It won’t be too bare when it’s removed as two Blue Atlantic Cedars are growing on the front side of the golden macrocarpa.  (The normal green macrocarpa is exceedingly common in NZ, Cupressus macrocarpa or “Monterey Cypress”.)  I’ve also asked Nigel to trim the little box hedge before winter sets in.

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Six.  There’s this rather cute pear tree in the paddock-section next door to us (east side of our property) and I thought I’d include a photo. Quite fond of it!

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This is my first contribution to  #SixOnSaturday (20-04-2019)

Nigel is a Landscape Architect and Director of Growplan   Blog  |  Website

Text and photos by Liz; Exploring Colour (2019)

21 thoughts on “Six on Saturday: Slimming and Trimming”

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  8. You’ll appreciate the extra light you get and the ability to grow more. I like the blue cedars too, but the other conifer does get huge. We had several in the garden here and one was so tall that it was like a landmark to find our way home, hehe! And I could stand under it to keep dry if it rained! It had to go, along with some others and we suddenly had lots of light. 🙂

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      1. Very true! It was like that in winter when we first came. And since our neighbours took down their tall conifers, we have light right into the evening. Lovely!

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        1. Lucky you to have neighbours that decided to deal with their tall trees! I’ve met one neighbour so far, a lovely lady who visited and offered us a date loaf still warm from the oven as well as a couple of different chutneys and some jams. Couldn’t get over her kindness!

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