Photo by C. Fowler
As well as planting new plants, we are also called upon to help maintain and care for existing plants. This often means cutting back shrubs, such as the huge laurel pictured on the left, or felling trees like that on the right. While it seems horribly destructive, such thinning out of weaker trees is essential for the benefit of the more lucky remaining specimens. Sometimes, though, certain species such as the birch at Brimham Rocks are just growing in the wrong place!
Once you’ve gone past empathising with the doomed timber, these tasks can be great fun - especially if we’re allowed a bonfire to dispose of the cut wood!
Photos by M. Wilson
