Spot the difference

"Do you think that needs a trim?" she said.  Dangerous words to a man whose gardening skills are in the areas of deadheading, pruning, cutting back and digging out.  A couple of hours later and here we are.

Actually, it's not as bad as it looks.  When the garden man put the phormium in it was about two feet high and wide and formed a nice backdrop to the 'Shy Maiden' statue.  But it has rapidly become a thug.  It has grown massive and there is an ornamental Amelanchier tree behind it which could hardly be seen.  There are other plants that seemed lost around it so yesterday we decided it had to go.  I started by cutting down all the leaves which took quite a while; they are extremely tough and fibrous.  After I had taken all of that to the recycling centre I started to tackle the root ball.  At first it wouldn't budge but with the help of a fork, spade and garden saw I eventually got it out.  Too heavy to get in the car to take to the tip but we managed to get it in the brown bin.  We'll see when it's collected on Tuesday whether they think it's too heavy.

Now it has gone we expected the border to look as though it was missing something but it doesn't; it looks a lot better!  There are spaces to fill but we will manage that without any problems.