Loquat in Full Flower
Today I worked at the home of a special client. I say "special" because she was one of the first 2-3 folks who hired me when I got started gardening again back in May 2010, admittedly a low point in my life. I will always be especially grateful for those folks who decided to give me a try, and who then referred me to others.
The work in this yard is hardly restoration, though in the beginning I did have to do a fair bit of vine removal. This person is a master gardener and always has projects for me to work on, and yes, the seasonal pruning.
Let me see, today I pruned a crowded crape myrtle, very carefully removed some lower limbs from a beautiful berry-filled old burfordi holly, took some dead wood out of an old dogwood, cut down and dug out a very old huge but sick sasanqua, transplanted a forsythia and four azaleas, removed wisteria here and there, went around the entire lot to do touch up pruning, pruned her 150+ foot long loropetalum hedge along the sidewalk along Beltline, petted her kitty, sunk bricks an inch into the ground for a mower-safe brick border in the "secret garden," and pulled down some smilax from her large camellias.
In case you're interested I listened to Lucinda William's "Down where the Spirit Meets the Bone" loudly on my iPod when pruning along Beltline.
It was a good general gardening day.
This client likes to work in the garden when i am working there. I love it when clients do this, and the moments we work-along-side and get to talk about life. The personal relationship with my client-friends is such a key component to my business, well, more accurately, to my life. I work a lot, and were it not for these relationships my life would be much more barren. And I just like it when folks who hire me are also. in some sense, my friends.
I took a few moments to take photos with my iPhone of her loquats in full bloom. I have pruned these big boys many times but not today. I am quite fond of loquats. They almost always have a late fall bloom which attracts and feeds lots of bees. And there is always the hope that these flowers may turn into fruits. As to why loquats fruit one year and not another is a total mystery to me, but when they do..ahh...they are so delicious! I do love me some loquat fruit!
The work in this yard is hardly restoration, though in the beginning I did have to do a fair bit of vine removal. This person is a master gardener and always has projects for me to work on, and yes, the seasonal pruning.
Let me see, today I pruned a crowded crape myrtle, very carefully removed some lower limbs from a beautiful berry-filled old burfordi holly, took some dead wood out of an old dogwood, cut down and dug out a very old huge but sick sasanqua, transplanted a forsythia and four azaleas, removed wisteria here and there, went around the entire lot to do touch up pruning, pruned her 150+ foot long loropetalum hedge along the sidewalk along Beltline, petted her kitty, sunk bricks an inch into the ground for a mower-safe brick border in the "secret garden," and pulled down some smilax from her large camellias.
In case you're interested I listened to Lucinda William's "Down where the Spirit Meets the Bone" loudly on my iPod when pruning along Beltline.
It was a good general gardening day.
This client likes to work in the garden when i am working there. I love it when clients do this, and the moments we work-along-side and get to talk about life. The personal relationship with my client-friends is such a key component to my business, well, more accurately, to my life. I work a lot, and were it not for these relationships my life would be much more barren. And I just like it when folks who hire me are also. in some sense, my friends.
I took a few moments to take photos with my iPhone of her loquats in full bloom. I have pruned these big boys many times but not today. I am quite fond of loquats. They almost always have a late fall bloom which attracts and feeds lots of bees. And there is always the hope that these flowers may turn into fruits. As to why loquats fruit one year and not another is a total mystery to me, but when they do..ahh...they are so delicious! I do love me some loquat fruit!
