Firethorn and Fingernails

The weather here is still very mild and temperatures forecast are well above what we would normally be experiencing here in Scotland.  I took the opportunity to get out mid week and move the Firethorn.  It's a job I've been dreading to do for sometime.  I never really liked the spot I chose for it.  I had hoped to be able to train it along wires attached to the fence on the shadier side of the garden.  Although it wasn't unhappy, it generally was healthy enough and was putting on growth but keeping it in check with pruning meant I was loosing flowers and ultimately the berries or pomes as they are correctly called.

June 2013

In this image you can see my attempts at trying to keep it contained and tied up to wires evenly spaced at around 1ft apart.  My attempt at Espaliering (is that a word - it doesn't look right) was never going to work not with having to contend with all the surrounding plants either.  Still, it has shown me how easily it can be done given the right amount of space to work and better knowledge of the pruning requirements.  

I was really quite surprised at how
easy it lifted from the ground.  I managed a decent sized root ball considering it's surrounded by other plants.  The snowdrops that grow around it's base were carefully lifted with as much soil as I could get - they were barely above the soil, time will tell if I've ruined their chance of flowering.

The receiving hole had been dug and it was given a good watering earlier in the day.  The soil in this part of the garden is good.  Over the years I kept the weeds down with a bark mulch - this in turn has rotted down into the soil.   Bonemeal was forked into the base of the hole and the back fill to provide some slow release fertiliser.

January 2014

  
A good mulch to protect the roots if the weather takes a sudden turn.  A redundant broken length of trellis was mended and added to the fence to provide a support for the framework of branches.  The branches were surprisingly quite pliable and didn't take much persuading, much to my relief.  On this back fence the Pyracantha will get sun for most of the day, it will prefer this spot.  It's been liberated!  The bees of course will benefit as it will be more prolific in it's flowering and berry production for the birds.  You can just make out a tiny cluster of the only berries it has produced this year.  The Aucuba still needs moving - it was happy enough in the shade that was once provided by the shed but I fear it will suffer in the sun.  The Griselinia littoralis is still doing nothing for me but I am loathe to discard it as it's made some good height this last couple of years.  All I know is that it can't stay there!  

Messing around with Firethorn in the garden can be quite hazardous.  Those huge thorns are lethal - I speak from experience but this time not a a single drop of blood was shed, I kid you not. 

When I was finished - I stood back, took stock and congratulated myself for getting this done.  My hands caked in mud and very, very dirty fingernails.  It's all good!