Sunday 19 February 2012

Hedging my bets

After a lot of thought I've picked my follow-tree. A difficult choice to make it was too. I've plumped for a garden tree because I can visit it every day and have also gone for one that is usuallyoverlooked.
And the winner is... an ash that is part of our boundary hedge. Our garden is long and thin and slopes steeply, with the house at the top and this hedge is as far from the house as you can get.
I've looked at old maps and the house has been here since at least 1880 and this bit of hedge pre-dates it. Over the years it has been pruned back and it has been laid, so my tree is short and barrel-chested and has thick boughs that grow sideways from its trunk. It's like a mature tree that has been put on its side.
I cut it back pretty radically a couple of winters ago, so it has lots of growth from last summer coming out of it hedgehog-style, upwards and sideways.
Plenty of ivy growing on it too with a few berries that the blackbirds have left uneaten. No sign of the ash buds fattening up at the moment. But on the bank below things are happening; snowdrops are in bloom and the delicate shoots of what I think is dog's mercury are just starting to push through the soil.


4 comments:

  1. Good choice - the best buds in the world, probably!

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  2. Thanks. I'm really looking forward to seeing 'my' buds open. Or perhaps that should be our buds.

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  3. It sounds like a lovely tree - and looks like an interesting one too. I like ash leaves - and generally the shape of the tree . . . but this one will be special in its difference. A hedgehog one. Looking forward to following it with you through the year.

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  4. Yes, ash is a real beauty - I love the way the leaves dapple sunlight. Roll on summer.

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