I should preface this piece by saying; I used to have two beautiful, enormous trees in the garden. beautiful conifers that, on any given day, would be a welcome sight to me when I get home from work. Tall, regal and towering over the garden commanding the space, demanding respect. I say “used to have” because, unfortunately, they became infested with vines which were slowly killing them. We had to have them taken out, and the garden hasn’t been the same since.

The garden now is, admittedly, much brighter and looks a bit more spacious. The problem now, however, is that the garden is extremely one dimensional. I have talked at length about the need for layers in landscaping, but it works with plants as well. Ground flowers, mid sized bushes all the way up to towering trees. Without those beautiful trees scraping the skyline the garden has lost a little bit of its charm.