By Victoria Plum 
By Victoria Plum
I really enjoy my garden because I’m always fascinated to see what my plants are doing: what they choose to do, how they cope with the vagaries of the weather, my interventions, insect depredations, and soil quality.
For instance, my alpine garden has been in situ for 14 years, though with some renovation of course, and the poor soil quality has kept the size of plants in check. I also have a tiny miniature garden that I started well before Covid, which still works well for the same reason.
But in general, my main garden is wild territory: everything in it has to look after itself and the way plants cope with the micro-climates always interests me.
However, at this week’s meeting of the Reepham & District Gardening Club, Mick Hillocks, chairman of the Norfolk Bonsai Association, explained the careful and specific interventions required to turn a normal deciduous tree into a perfect, natural-looking miniature version of itself using a saw and wire, and branch, twig, leaf and root pruning.
The most bizarre, I thought, was “threading”. For this technique (I’ve never heard of it before) you drill a hole through a branch or trunk and thread a slender, pliable branch from one side of the branch or trunk to come out on the other side. It takes some time for the branch to weld itself to the trunk, a bit like pleaching, I suppose.
You might do this to balance the look of the tree because there is art as well as science in bonsai. To train a tree takes years. Have I got time for this? In fact, I have to admit that I do rather like bonsai trees; I have killed off my fair share.
Pictured above: Purple Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) bonsai. Below: Mugo pine (Pinus mugo) bonsai: when the “candles” grow in spring, halve them with fingernails to keep the plant low. Photos: Tina Sutton
Summer show
Prepare for excitement at next month’s gardening club meeting in the Town Hall, Church Street, Reepham, for the Summer Show and Social Evening.
Bring your show entries to compete for stunning prizes. There will be a raffle, a quiz and even a glass of wine, not to mention the chance to chat with friends about the weather and our various garden traumas.
Note the date: Tuesday 19 August at 7.30 pm but bring your entries a little earlier to display to best advantage.
Coming up later
If you belong to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust you will know about the reserve at Sweet Briar Marshes, close to Norwich city centre.
We are lucky to have a talk about this new reserve in September, and then in October a talk from Wally Webb who I have heard many times on Radio Norfolk. Bring your friends.
Geoff Fisher