It was Lord Tennyson who gave us the now famous line:
In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.
Whether true or not I cannot say, but in Spring my thoughts are far from romantic. After the warm weather first stirs strong desires to get out in the garden and plant something or weed something or move something or just do something, I soon find myself sneezing, and coughing, and dripping, and itching, and downright miserable.
In recent years the symptoms of hayfever have increased. Last year, I had a respite when I went and stayed with Son#3 and DIL#3 when The Most Charming Grandson#1 was born.
And then I returned home.
To more sneezing, and coughing, and nose-blowing, and eye-scratching, and feeling exhausted and nauseous and miserable.
All. The. Time.
This year, now into my second month of symptoms which has included several days where I felt that something was constantly blocking my windpipe, and then noticing that I had developed tingling in and around the mouth after ingesting some fruits (which is apparently linked to pollen allergy) we decided that enough was enough. As much as I hate cutting down trees … as much as I loved the privacy that they offered … as much as I loved their growth habit … as much as I've grown attached to them over the past twenty-four years … the birch trees had to go.
Yesterday our driveway looked like this ...
Today it looks like this ...
I've already started looking at driveway planting ideas but surprisingly - or perhaps not given that I did actually love those trees and others obviously must do too otherwise why are there so many of them around - birch trees feature in a lot of these designs.
Not going to work for us.
Instead, as I looked around our garden I found lots of inspiration. Given the front of the house overlooks the driveway we want something attractive. Well, I do anyway. DH might have other specifications but pretty is definitely my priority.
Perhaps roses (as much as DH hates them) as they are looking pretty spectacular at the moment even though my camera doesn't do them justice ...
Or wisteria (after we planted one on our pergola after insisting we never would) which smells gorgeous and has a lovely weeping habit ...
Or natives which are easy-care and have flowered impressively this year (a sign, apparently, that we're in for a long hot, dry summer) ...
Or maybe even fruit trees especially now that we're dipping our toes into the world of espalier (although DH prefers to call it "controlled growth" in case our espaliered trees turn out not looking anything like they should) ...
Recently (as in October Labour Weekend which, in New Zealand, is the weekend where everyone traditionally gardens - if there is going to be another outbreak of COVID-19 it's going to be traced to that weekend and garden centres nationwide) we decided that an espaliered screen of feijoa trees near a small sheltered area that we importantly call the courtyard would screen the area from the wider garden and from neighbours.
Several years ago DH managed to grow feijoa trees from cuttings and they were doing well in the garden alongside the fence. We decided to move these trees and even though we haven't yet put in the posts or wires to start training them, we are happy with how they look. Unfortunately, the blue table and chairs that we liked to use in the courtyard began rusting badly and are no more. So we will have to look for an alternative - something that can cope with coastal conditions.
So from this ...
To this ...
We're hoping that when the trees are a little bigger that they will also screen the veranda and the back bedroom from prying eyes. At the moment, the middle tree is looking a little sad but we're hoping it will pick up soon.
Meanwhile, there is now a huge gap where they previously resided, although they are not entirely to blame as, during Lockdown, DH decided to remove two large trees that were in the garden and were out of place with our planting (after considering it for, oh, twenty years or so). That and the loss of the trees on our driveway has made us very aware that we live in town.
However, a few trips to the garden centre should fix that and I must say that I'm looking forward again to spending time outdoors without getting sick.
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