Weeding Along Fences & Limbing Up

If good fences make good neighbours, then weeding along fences makes good gardens.  (Not sure about the grammar, but I am sure about the weeding.)

Before Weeding

After Weeding

These tree seedlings were hiding between a trellis and a fence where presumably they hoped they would miss getting weeded.  ‘Gifted’ trees can be wonderful, but I strongly recommend keeping them away from fence lines as they will just wreck the fence eventually.

Sometimes tree seedlings get missed even when they aren’t ‘hiding’.  When I moved to my current place, the downstairs neighbour and I discovered that the garden had been left to it’s own devices and there were at least 13 saplings – all along the fence/property line.  Worse yet, they seemed to be mostly Manitoba Maples, which are apparently quite handsome trees in Manitoba, but here in Ontario they are weed trees and I wish they’d go back.  At any rate, we couldn’t let that many trees grow right by the fence – the fence was in rough enough shape without trees trying to grow up against it.  ( See What Happens When You Let Shrubs Grow Through The Fence) We got rid of all but two which we thought were regular maples, but turned out to be Norway Maples which (excuse my prejudice) are even worse than Manitoba Maples as their shade and root systems are both very dense, so it’s difficult to get anything else to grow anywhere near them.  I managed to get one down while it was still small enough, but had to give up on the other, and settle for limbing it up.  It now provides a roost for the pidgeons that my neighbour feeds.  Sigh!

On a happier note, the limbing up went quite well and the cuts healed very quickly, as you can see in the photo to the right.  As an added bonus the leaves turn a beautiful golden yellow  that just glows in Autumn and which photos don’t quite capture, but I’ve tried all the same.  (Autumn photos taken in November)

Hiding under the Hemlock

The young native Hemlocks [Tsuga canadensis]that I see planted in people’s yards on gardening shows are fairly small and dense, but as they get older they thin out considerably, and get very tall. Then, like many evergreens, some of the lowest branches die back because they aren’t getting any light down there. And yes, this is true of shade-loving Hemlocks too.
The rule is to remove deadwood because it’s an entry point for disease, but to be honest I couldn’t see any evidence that that was an issue here. It was more a case of aesthetics.  Aesthetics and weeds. They don’t really show in this photo as far as I can tell, but there was a regular ‘nursery’ of tree seedlings developing in the shade of this Hemlock and the easiest way to be able to weed under there was to get rid of the deadwood first.  I try my best not to leave stubs – both for the trees sake and for mine.  Stubs snag anything they can, look unsightly, and interfere with the trees ability to close the wound left by removing the branch.  The smaller the branch, the smaller the wound and the more quickly it heals.

The weeding still involved crawling around on my hands and knees, but at least there were no longer any dead branches trying to scratch my face.  I did this pruning in the middle of July or the middle of summer (depending which hemisphere you live in), but since all I was doing was removing deadwood and weeding, I could presumably have done it at just about any time of the year.  (OK not the middle of winter, but just because it’s too bloody cold.)

In order to do these photos, I got in under the living ‘skirt’ of the tree.  If you stood back, the work I did wouldn’t be particularly noticeable, it would just somehow look a little lighter and neater, but not in an obvious way.