Shrub Taming & Conifer Removal

The next thing I did after Stumpfest '22 was cut back the ridiculously giant shrub that's on the left side of the garden, it is staying for this year as the birds love it and it gives me a chance to get more cover established for them before we remove it, plus we aren't planning to do any work to the left side of the garden this year. 

Before...

After...

I'm tickled by the fact that it looks like I did very little to it because of the tree behind that was revealed by my pruning, but the pile of branches shows how much I did take off. This shrub provides some useful screening of our neighbours drive which is handy. I wanted to get the pruning done in January so it was done before the birds started to nest - just in case!

Not at all in chronological order but I thought it'd be a boring post on it's own, a few days ago we had the conifer next to the giant shrub removed, it was HUGE, and it blocked so much light from the garden, especially at the moment when the sun is lower. Plus honestly, I hate conifers, I know some people love them but they are just not my thing. So, here's the before & after of the conifer:

It makes such a huge difference not having a huge, dense, and dark blob there, the garden feels bigger, it even makes a difference when you're standing in the room that's on the left there. Eventually I will put some trellis up to give us & our neighbour a little privacy, but that is probably a next year job. For this year the cherry tree in the pot that is on the left is going to go over there to give my neighbour some privacy!

You can see the shade the conifer used to cast in this picture, you can also see what a state the back border was in!!

It's the somewhat phallic looking shadow!! This is the sun after, not a perfect comparison but you get the idea, the border where the giant shrub is also gets a ton more sun now which will be great for when I sort that out and get it planted up.

I'm firmly an advocate of removing things from your garden that don't work for you, there's no point in keeping something just because it's mature or it's there already.

Thanks for reading, have a great day!