Oleaster down

About a month after the pruner action noticed at reference 1, my attention was drawn to the fact the the side of the oleaster that I had left, that is to say the side visible from the south, from the garden next door, appeared to be moribund if not dead. Rather unsightly in fact.

Within a few hours the oleaster was condemned. More pruner action was needed: action involving the heavy duty twig cutter which looks more like a bolt cutter than anything else (from FIL), pruning saw (bought), the bush saw (from my own father) and the trusty saw bench (made with timber lifted from the margins of an undergraduate job with Trollope & Colls). The pruning saw to take lumps out of the oleaster, the twig cutter to cut the lumps down to a couple of centimetres or so in diameter and the bush saw to finish off the bigger pieces that were left. 

Three shifts of two or three hours each and the job was done, as snapped first above, with a lot of the stuff coming out being long dead. Plus, there was quite a lot of the red, powdery mould as snapped second above: not clear if this was cause or effect.

In any event, the plan is to leave nature to do its work on the stumps remaining and for the various shrubs which had been lurking underneath being allowed to have their day in the sun. No need to visit a garden centre at all. While the young fig tree on the other side of the fence will provide a summer screen in no time at all.

The informal compost heap is now rather larger than it was. And a bit tricky to walk on, but I dare say it will all settle down fast enough. Anyway, in the autumn there will be the dead leaf harvest to smooth things over.

From which enlargement, I associated to loading carts with bales, back in the 1960s, well before today's large bales were invented. The idea then was to build from the outside in, using the inner bales to lock the outer bales in place. Which might seem a bit odd until you try doing it the other way around and finding yourself in a bit of a mess. With a certain amount of this outside in having contributed to the present enlargement.

In the margins, we decided that we needed to identify a shrub (or perhaps a small tree) growing on the other side of the northern fence. My first guess is some relative of the plum, but we will see what Google images has to say.

Answer: cinnamomum, a genus of evergreen aromatic trees and shrubs belonging to the laurel family. That is to say, a collection of interesting trees growing in hot countries. So wrong.

Next up, Bing on various search keys. Plenty of leaves of the right shape but with jagged edges. Nothing promising. Didn't make any progress with small green fruit, which I had thought distinctive.

Maybe I shall have to consult one of BH's expert gardener books from the Hessayon stable.

And while this was going on, the Microsoft advertising server decided that I really needed to buy a replacement oleaster and started feeding me advertisements from people who could sell me one. That is to say, advertisements in Edge, the browser which I use on my laptop. Chrome, which I use on my desktop, rather cleaner as far as that goes.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/04/oleastered.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._G._Hessayon. The stable.