He came, he saw, he lopped

We had a few old trees lopped today by old Bob the tree lopper. I actually just rang for a quote and Bob turned up within the hour of my first call. He gave a me a quote which seemed okay and then said he could do it straight away as he had a free moment or two.

You can see the dead grevillea. It used to be such a beauty too. 

Seriously, the guy was a complete trooper. No nonsense. Just a man and his chainsaw (and an extension ladder).

We had the large dead grevillea removed. Jason was not making much of a dent in it with his hand saw...and had lost hope! When he started toying with the idea of buying a chainsaw, I knew it was time to call in a tree lopper. As much as I tease dear Jason on the blog, I am rather fond of his limbs and would hate for him to be without them! A chainsaw is an unforgiving tool in the wrong hands.

Anyway, the poor old grevillea had apparently become too top heavy over time and had split down the middle of its main branch, according to Bob...Very sad but we needed to get rid of it sooner rather than later...as it was becoming a landmark for the Sow's Ear. ("Yes, you can't miss us. We're the white house, the one with the dead tree out the front," I'd explain to first-time visitors looking for the Sow's Ear).

Bob removing all the smaller trees first. Didn't mean to get such an unflattering shot of Bob...

Bob also removed about nine other smaller trees which were planted too close together and were really under-performing. There were also some weed trees which had started growing of their own accord (think medium Chinese Elm and umbrella trees). Good old Bob poisoned all the stumps which he had cut down to ground-level too.

We left all the mock orange trees (murrayas), the frangipani and a couple of the better established natives. So now we have a little more room to breathe down this section of the garden...and we can plan our next garden project to spruce up the joint.