After so much time spent away from home it has been good over the last few days to get stuck into doing the jobs around the garden. One of the tasks I've been putting off for several months is the removal of some barbed wire and wire fencing along one boundary where the neighbours have put up a new fence. With the help of Nick &amp; Val and Dave and Lucie and some cajoling from Mary it has been removed. I had to buy some bolt cutters to snip through the thick wire so that I could roll it up, squash it down before uprooting the old fence posts.

[gallery type="rectangular" size="medium" ids="5590,5589"]

<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/cox-apple-blossomapr19.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-5592 size-thumbnail" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/cox-apple-blossomapr19-200x150.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="150" /></a>In other areas of the garden my severe pruning of the apple trees to tie them back to the wires I installed last year seems to have been successful. The cox's apple is full of blossom with the prospect of another good year for apples. I do need to keep tieing wayward branches back and I think it will take several years to get them both into shape.

<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/hornbeamapr19.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-5591" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/hornbeamapr19-150x200.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="200" /></a>And good news when it comes to the <a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/archives/5222" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new trees I planted in September</a> last year which are coming into leaf. Here the Hornbeam is looking particularly healthy.

I do love the shape of this tree. If the large Ash tree has to be removed in the next few years then I might replace it with another Hornbeam.

<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/new-garden-furnitureapr19.jpg"><img class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-5593" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/new-garden-furnitureapr19-200x150.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="150" /></a>To appreciate the garden fully there are times when I'd like to sit and enjoy a cuppa. With this in mind I bought a couple of chairs and a coffee table. I will use them near the back door which is an area that gets the morning sun. I have in the past sat out there and eaten my breakfast but not on comfortable chairs. I have to confess that constructing the chairs wasn't as straightforward as I'd hoped but it has been several years since I last built flat-pack furniture.