Forever Young

She's a beauty again.  How many years since she looked vibrant, I have no idea.  It has taken over a year of focused shaping and pruning by my Yard Wizard to bring her back to glory.  Dame Apple is young again.

In the beginning--February 2012--covered with Ivy
and not yet in leaf.  Is there really an apple tree in that mound?

For the thirty-five years we've lived next to her, the apple tree has always look like a mound of green garbage.

Ivy and Nightshade removed.

A grant from the city to restore native plants started the clean-up process.  That's when Yard Wizard took on the challenge.

Happily shaped and blooming last spring

She responded well to every step of the rejuvenation.

Perhaps someday the Things I get to do today will include finding out what kind of apple tree she really is.

New plantings of native trees surrounding her at the base, Dame Apple glows with new life.

Francies for Her Dress

Button blossoms

Dame Apple is putting on the bling. She is now spring-young enough to make her dress be covered with shades of pink and white:  pretty buttons and bows tied carefully to the tips of each branch and branchlet. Deep at heart, she must be a 7-year-old designing her finest Easter dress.

La Belle Dame 

Somewhere on the list of Things I get to do today I wish I could for a moment be Dame Apple, exploding with excessive good taste into a show-stopping garment, elegant beyond human words.

Coaxing Back Her Youth--part 2

In the beginning(yesterday)--just for a point of reference

Tyler came early today: 9:30 AM.  Tyler is the plant wizard who designed my back yard exquisitely when he was only 17 or 18 and now loves the plants into their finest shape.  I swear he is half monkey and has tree sap flowing through his veins instead of blood.  He is also the "arborist" of yesterday's post.*

At the end of yesterday's work--form emerging

He was eager to continue the make-over process and went right to work. He admitted some uncertainty about what the final results would be, but there is always a conversation between the plant and Tyler that blends into the highest and best outcome.  I'm confident of that and head off to other Things I get to do today.

Unveiling of an heirloom treasure.

Upon my return I nearly sprinted to the work area and sucked in my breath with the sight.  There she was, not finished yet, still some hag bones interrupting the vision, but she was coming, with remarkable strength for such an old lady, into a very handsome presence.  (To be continued).


*Tyler Doggett: email me through the "comments" on this post for his contact information and rates.