Hi all, thanks very much for the advice and the encouragement.
I have no clue what type they are because I inherited my beautiful established, almost wild looking garden just over a year ago and I am very new to gardening. They are very tall leggy woody things with purple cone shape flower heads. They seem to attract butterflies like crazy last year which was my first summer with them.
So I had a crack at it at lunchtime today. The one I went for is the one that is growing mainly in a 45 degree angle. I took a lot out and had to take a bit off other bushes and shrubs to see what to cut. I pruned about three quarters of it out and most stems have been reduced from about 15ft to about 4ft. I left a few tall stems at the back, just because I filled my garden wheelie bin up. I think it does look tidier now and can't wait to see it come back better. It will give me the confidence to prune the other two. The apple tree in the garden produced rotten looking apples last year but it was a terrible shaped tree. So in the winter I chopped a few huge over grown arms off and fed it potato fertilizer and compost and it looks really healthy with lots of great flowers appearing. Hopefully the learning curve will be a successful one.
Posts
Hi all, thanks very much for the advice and the encouragement.
I have no clue what type they are because I inherited my beautiful established, almost wild looking garden just over a year ago and I am very new to gardening. They are very tall leggy woody things with purple cone shape flower heads. They seem to attract butterflies like crazy last year which was my first summer with them.
So I had a crack at it at lunchtime today. The one I went for is the one that is growing mainly in a 45 degree angle. I took a lot out and had to take a bit off other bushes and shrubs to see what to cut. I pruned about three quarters of it out and most stems have been reduced from about 15ft to about 4ft. I left a few tall stems at the back, just because I filled my garden wheelie bin up. I think it does look tidier now and can't wait to see it come back better. It will give me the confidence to prune the other two. The apple tree in the garden produced rotten looking apples last year but it was a terrible shaped tree. So in the winter I chopped a few huge over grown arms off and fed it potato fertilizer and compost and it looks really healthy with lots of great flowers appearing. Hopefully the learning curve will be a successful one.
Thanks again.
Dave