AKA the orchard. You may remember that we had the two aged (- 300 years?) Sycamores topped and reduced in size last year. We were hoping that the trees wouldn’t interpret that act as an encouragement to suicide and were fingers crossed over the winter. As you can see the foliage is luscious and healthy with new stems and branches appearing all over it. The felled branches caused all sorts of mayhem in the borders and the wild flower meadow, which we expected, and again we were wondering how the garden survived – which it did!

We have obviously lost the shade but lightening the garden has allowed undiscovered plants to break out in a bid for stardom, and existing plants such as honesty have blossomed even more vigorously.

The same has applied to the meadow with a more vigorous display than before and less energy spent striving for the light.