Zen and the Art of Hornbeam Maintenance

A major part of the formal gardens at Mezzacello is the east west allee. The allee is defined by the 44 hornbeam trees Rick planted four years ago. It is the major visual wall of Mezzacello from the street elevation.  Rick occasionally gives a trees a trim but this year he decided they needed a hard cut. They are now 20 feet 4.2 m high. So we need a big ladder. We bought a 12’ (3.65m) ladder. Rick loves it because it gives him a unique perspective on Mezzacello. He can also see the lines of the tree wall and the formal garden rooms - and complain that they are not perfect.I get this perspective all the time because of drone flights or work on the roof which Rick doesn’t like to go out on or standing on top of the chicken coop. Rick’s not a climber.  He does care about his hornbeam trees though. I have been subtly hinting that he should do this for a while. Today was the first day. There are 44 trees. There’s a pattern here. My husband is a walking Walt Whitman poem; he contains multitudes.[media-credit id=3 align="alignnone" width="300"][/media-credit][media-credit id=3 align="alignnone" width="300"][/media-credit]This is a good reminder to me that I need to trim all the fruit trees on the western edge of Mezzacello. So I will use the ladder next.