An Old Friend
Posted By Judith on 21st May 2017
In 1986 we bought a house on Willowfield Drive in Halifax. It had a decent sized garden and it was there that we did our first ‘proper’ gardening.
Tucked away in an unloved border, surrounded by weeds and overgrown shrubs, we discovered a weedy acer struggling to find the light and fighting a loosing battle with it’s neighbours.
Judging by it’s size it could have been 10 – 15 years old, but it was on it’s last legs. Doing nothing for it wasn’t an option, so we dug it out with as many roots as it could muster, which wasn’t many, put it in a pot and sat back to see what happened.
Well, the brave little soldier lived, in fact he lived very well and over the last 31 years has repaid our kindness many times over.
I water him regularly in summer, feed him occasionally, protect his new leaves from the late Spring frosts and worry about him when it’s windy as it was in this picture.
He’s moved house with us 4 times and seems to take being man-handled by removal men in his stride, it’s hard to believe he’s so old.
Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum Atropurpureum’ the Japanese maple, but we prefer just to call him an old friend.
