Clearing monster fuchsia around a young hazel

In the north corner of the Boggy Brae garden there is a young hazel tree. It's surrounded by monster fuchsias that are hell bent on taking over the world. I decided the other day to give the hazel some space. If you click on the pic to enlarge it, you'll see a yellow leaf in the low centre and to the left of that a small patch of sunlight. That sunlight is on one of the hazel trunks; it has two.

Boggy Brae hazel may well have grown from a seed from this old hazel up the hill (see below) in the woods the trunks of which are horizontal.

photo from February 2015

There was a fair amount of dead wood that I could reach over the wall and the old fence wires before I needed to climb over the wall with my alligator saw, so I took the fire basket down with me.  When I did get round to climbing over the wall I grabbed one of the wire holder thingies to haul myself up. It came out in my hand! I think it was the only one whose anchorage was iffy.

Came out in my hand

So then I had a tangle of boingy fence wires to deal with whose ends I couldn't untangle. Out came the hacksaw. That pipe that the hacksaw is leaning on is our heating oil supply pipe which Toad has begun to repaint at the top end. Clearing vegetation from around the oil pipe so he can get at it was another reason to clear fuchsia from near the hazel.

After a couple of hours clearing monster fuchsia the young hazel had a bit more space to breathe and, with any luck, to produce filberts in due course. It has grown quite tall and there is more clearing to do down there but it was a good morning's work. The three and four metre long fuchsia branches I cut have been piled up by the lane to dry a bit. The lower ones will probably put down roots if I leave them too long.

Looking up under hazel

In front of the wall, along the lane, is a rough verge of Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage mixed with Wood Sorrel, Herb Bennet and a few other things. I found some of the saxifrage actually growing out of the wall, Wood Sorrel growing on top of it with ivy, and a tiny spruce tree also growing out of the wall. That got yanked out and chucked on the fire.

At the bottom of the wall was this small plant. I'm not sure what it is yet. Behind it, having grown through the wall is a fuchsia root. As has happened often when I'm regarding or dealing with rampant plant growth on the  Boggy Brae, I feel a sense of reassurance that Nature, given half a chance, is a good deal tougher than we think.

Unbridging Rhododendron ponticum

Bit by bit I am raising the canopy–or, as I put it inside my head, unponting the ponticum where ponting means bridging from Latin pons meaning bridge–of the large rhododendron on the south-east side of the boggy brae garden. The area of ground it covered was getting larger and larger and the get-at-ability of some parts of the garden near it was getting harder and harder. Also some of its bridges were putting down roots. In due course this would have speeded up its conquering of more and more garden space. Enough was enough and I wanted to be able to walk underneath it without it trying to scalp me. One of the most effective and fun ways to deal with its rooting offspring is, I discovered, to light a fire at the bottom of one of them and burn various bits of garden prunings including the leafy branches. In due course the bridged and rooted extension keels over, one saws or twists off the trunk part, burns the small stuff and leaves (they burn very well), and stacks the thicker logs on the bridge stack for cutting into wood stove lengths in due course.

a keeled over R.ponticum offspring

the 'bridges' wood stack

only this and a few of the 'hangers' in the first photo to go

That cotoneaster and those breeze blocks

With a little help from Toadlet, I got this far with That Cotoneaster. Whenever I say or think that word I think of my dad, who died in April 1993: he always, deliberately, said Cotton Easter.

Some roots got left in the ground as simply too difficult to get out. If they resprout, I'll mow them down. Out of the old and partly dying rhododendron next to the Cotton Easter bank, I got quite a pile of firewood, mostly just snapped off with a little help from my boot.

So then I had a neat slope and clarty boots.

As I rolled the breeze blocks to the Rattletrap to take to the dump, one of the whole ones broke into pieces. This made it much easier to lift.

off to the dump we go

Gardening Boggy Brae style

It began by with just some serious pruning of a cotoneaster that was getting far too big, that was producing far too many seedling cotoneasters elsewhere, and that was blocking access to steps and the side of a hedge I need to get at. Then I decided to try and hoik the whole thing out, along with the dead heather, ferns various, and two small holly trees that were growing in the three breeze blocks on the north-west terrace. Cotoneasters, hollies, and ferns grow with cheerful abandon all over the Boggy Brae and would soon turn into a forest, along with the birches, beeches, oaks and rowans that do the same. When they appear in the right places I encourage them. That is, I leave them to get on with their lives in peace. This cotoneaster and the hollies have outlived their welcome.

I don't know how long the breeze blocks have been there, certainly as long as we have and they, or rather the plants in them, already looked well established ten years ago. A heather plant that was alive then has since died. It was time for a change.

The soil inside the blocks was nice crumbly stuff and, just beyond, towards the rhododendron hedge, I found a fair bit of fireplace clinker. I guess people used to empty the ash pan down there once upon a time.

The first two blocks were relatively easy to shift and to empty of soil and roots. I'd left some of the cotoneaster and holly trunks to use as levers but the third block was rather more challenging.

block 3

The force of Nature helped with half of it because the cotoneaster trunk had split the block in half in its expansive Boggy Brae takeover bid for dominance so, with a bit of shoving, the holly half could be pushed over and the holly roots grubbed out and cut.

holly root ball from inside breeze block

A black tom cat sat in the drive and watched my toings and froings for more tools out of the shed. I've no idea whose cat it is. Last year it was a black and white cat that used to supervise happenings.

I ran out of energy at this point so I'm still left with a cotoneaster stump. Later I remembered my Darlac pocket chain saw. If the rain holds off today, I'll see if I can saw off the trunk at ground level with this.

Otherwise it'll be a case of recruiting some more brute force in the shape of Toad.

A spot of pruning

In spite of heavy showers at night and now again, it was dry this afternoon, so I decided to prune a cotoneaster and to shove the dry branches into the Rattletrap to be taken to the dump as and when.





I kept the thick, trunky branches to use as firewood in due course. Plonked them on top of a stump to season.

The place where the cotoneaster was, along with a couple of small holly trees that I also don't want, looks a bit bare now. The plan is to get rid of the breeze blocks and the roots of the trees so I can mow over the edge and get at the rhododendron hedge with a hedge cutter more easily.
There were several cotoneaster seedlings. In a way it's a pity to cut it down as bees like the flowers, but there is more: see the golden cotoneaster at the corner of the terrace behind the stump in the last picture. There's plenty of that.

better view down to the loch too!

Leaves against a shabby old door

...and more on the wash'us floor.

These leaves are from a weed, a large weed, some kind of non-native cotoneaster of which there are several plants on and around the Boggy Brae. I presume their berries and seeds are spread by birds and, possibly, deer. One is supposed not to like invasive weeds but on a day as grey and dreich as today, the wet and brightly coloured leaves are a joy so, well waterproofed, I went climbing over fences and splodging through damp sodden vegetation and cut some branches for a vase.

Preparing to build a "dead hedge"

The sun rose in a nearly cloud free sky this morning a little before eight o'clock. By  a little after half past one it was slipping behind the hill that is behind the Boggy Brae garden. The temperature starts to drop after that. One has to make the most of short winter days. Today was a glorious one but I think we're in for a wet day tomorrow.

So I made the most of it pulling out spiraea and pruning the overgrown grey sallow, again. I think that particular sallow is done for this year though there are others elsewhere in the garden.

Spiraea with roots like this I am piling up to dry and supply a bonfire at some point (not tonight). I daren't include them in my "dead hedge" plans because if laid on damp ground they will simply regrow. I learned that boggy brae plant behaviour from fuchsia several years ago!

Here is a wee runner with roots, roots, roots. Given a chance to invade one's garden, spiraea will.

That said, the flowers are very nice in summer. Insects like them.

So, today I have got all but about three metres of what I suppose was planted as a wee hedge many years ago pulled out.


Below is the stuff I need to get at for my 'dead hedge'–all those old, moss covered stalks will be ideal. Getting at them is the job for another day (or days). Maybe I can use some of the still live shoots higher up the dead hedge, in the hope that they'll be too dead to grow new roots by the time they get to the bottom!

Here is a stretch of double fence on the south-east edge of the garden between RhodoDen and the field into which I wander for sunrise pics. I cleared it yesterday of rhododendron branches that were growing through it. Suitable dead stuff will be stacked up between the two rows of wire fence. Yes, that is an old Wayfarer sailing dinghy tiller extension that is propping up a bit of fencing wire. Waste not, etc.

And so the sun goes down on another boggy brae day and the temperature drops. Currently 5.6ºC and falling. I wonder if it will beat last night's low of 4.2?

I leave you with a blurry pic of the moonrise across the loch at the end of a satisfying and enjoyable day. Now for a large mug of coffee and a very large cookie that I made earlier.