Monday 13 September 2010

Grape Anyone?

Today I went back to visit the adorable Wendel and to make a start on the back garden, which I did by decimating next doors' grape vine which has completely taken over and was marching full force across the border! The poor bay tree it was climbing was a mass of old vine, woody clematis, struggling ivy and roses reaching for the sky, to the point where it was suffocating under the weight of all that debris. I couldn't believe how much fruit the vine had produced with no attention what-so-ever and the first job was to harvest as much of it as possible, which turned out to be 3 buckets full - I was sorely tempted to remove my wellies, step into the bucket and start stomping!
Unfortunately the clematis and rose have suffered a lot at the hands of the roaming vine and had to be pruned right back, but I'm determined to bring them back to full vigour in the spring. I'll also be spending some time each visit cutting out the dead material from the bay tree to make it look and feel better and to prevent further encroachment.
Wendel kept me company by chasing flies, pouncing on anything that moved and climbing up and sleeping in the shrub beside me, but cannily disappeared when it came to bagging and tidying up - little bugger!
LxXx

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