Buddleia progress

Quite a long time ago I decided that the buddleia that grows by the side of the house should go. It grew like there was no tomorrow, and took up the space where I park if work on Neuadd Ogwen doesn't prevent me from that; it threatened to block the road; and I was scared that its roots would do unpleasant things to the foundations of my house. It also casts a lot of shadow over the little flower bed (now only containing weeds) beside the road. If the buddleia would be gone, I could cultivate that. As it is now, I suppose only shadowy plants like stinging nettles and ferns would be okay there!

This would not be the first buddleia I would attack; there had been another one growing in front of my conservatory and blocking the view which I had killed, and another one had been competing with my apple tree, and I had dug that one out. These things grow too much…

Quite often, if you decide something needs doing, it doesn't quite end up top of the to do list. And it can stay down the bottom for a while. I remember having made a start on this shrub; I had cut off some branches that got in the way of the car. I can't find a reference to that on my blog, but it is a while ago. And it didn't make a big difference to this sizeable piece of vegetation.

I recently decided that the time had come, and I started cutting off branches. I started on the left, where the bins live, and gradually made my way to the right. I cut off a big branch, then cut off the part that I think makes firewood, and get rid of the rest. That last bit is the main issue! It is a big shrub. Buddleia wood is rather soft so the cutting the trunks into bits is not much work at all, especially with my beautiful sawhorse. But finding space for the wood is starting to get interesting!

I'm not done yet it all, but now I have started for real the project has momentum, and I wish to keep going now, one branch per day during the week. And in the end I'll have to saw off the actual trunk. And then poison it. Otherwise it will come back! And then I have a new project: creating a nice raised bed by the side of the road. It doesn't get an awful lot of light, even with the buddleia gone, so I will have to make sure I find suitable plants for it… But I am sure that when it is done, it will look a lot better than it has done in many years!

Work in progress