I swear, the tree was grateful [View all]

Spring has just arrived. Probably a little bit late for a radical chainsaw pruning, but I could feel a shudder of relief from my 100 year old old Callistemon when I finished a severe pruning that I began last year when I moved to this house.

Callistemons are Aussie natives but I'm sure they grow in the warmer spots of the US. Native birds and insects love them; pollinator heaven! This poor old tree had been neglected for close on a century. Never trimmed or pruned, sitting cheek by jowl to a NZ Christmas Bush which is a magnificent tree in it's own right.

It was loaded with dead wood. Could hardly raise a flower bud because the poor tree was so bloody short of resources and long on old, tangled wood. I started pruning last winter but the task was too daunting. Original plan was to thin it out but the wood is so twisted and leathery-tough that secateurs just wont do the job. Branches tie themselves in knots and the wood is bendy but not forgiving. It just became too hard, so I threw it a bag of horse manure and put it off for a year. But the tree showed it's appreciation; new, low shoots appeared everywhere. They were green and healthy.

Winter on Bass Strait is not a good time to get the chainsaw out, but today I did and am just THAT proud that a 70 yo gal can still wield a (smallish) chainsaw overhead.

I know, it's an insignificant pic but it represent over a year's work to save this venerable, magnificent old tree which in turn sustains a host of insects, pollinators, endangered possums and god knows what else. I'm sure the tree whispered "thank you" when I'd finished.