A mature juniper had grown into an enormous mound beside the home, taking on most of its curved planting mattress. Reddit consumer u/Cleancut71 thought of eradicating it however couldn’t deliver himself to take out such a longtime shrub, so he selected to reshape it as a substitute.
Reasonably than giving the juniper one other customary rounded trim, he reduce deep channels by means of the foliage and divided the one mass into separate sections. The consequence saved many of the plant whereas altering its total define.
One Juniper Had Crammed Many of the Planting Mattress
Earlier than the reduce, the juniper fashioned one broad dome that stretched from the garden edge towards the home. Years of development had produced a dense mass with little definition past its rounded perimeter.
Its scale was additionally the rationale the house owner didn’t wish to take away it. A shrub this established would go away a big empty part of the mattress if taken out.
Deep Cuts Began Dividing the Shrub
As a substitute of decreasing the entire juniper to a smaller dome, the house owner started slicing channels from the periphery towards the middle. Every reduce separated a part of the foliage whereas preserving massive sections of the unique plant.
Clippings throughout the garden present how a lot development got here off through the course of, however many of the juniper’s quantity remained intact.
Separate Sections Changed the Single Inexperienced Mound
The completed reduce divides the juniper into a number of rounded lobes with slim gaps between them. Every part follows the curve of the unique shrub, so the plant nonetheless fills the mattress with out studying as one stable mass.
The bizarre form drew its personal comparisons within the Reddit dialogue. u/wintercass_ mentioned it “seems to be like a mind,” a resemblance that turns into onerous to overlook as soon as the channels divide the rounded inexperienced sections.
One Minimize Modified the Form With out Eradicating the Plant
The side-by-side view reveals how little of the juniper’s general footprint disappeared. Many of the change got here from carving into the prevailing cover fairly than slicing the shrub down or changing it.
One other commenter famous that the recent cuts ought to soften as new development returns, whereas the divided kind can stay seen. The experiment offers an outsized mature shrub another choice apart from removing: use the expansion already there and switch pruning into the design.
Picture credit go to Reddit consumer u/Cleancut71.
