Meet Bob Plant

Bob came into my life about twenty years ago - a mere 12 inches tall and one of three pals in a supermarket bargain set, he promised great things if I looked after him and kept him watered and fed... 3 houses, 2 towns and several different rooms later he'd ended up over 6 feet tall, 4 foot wide in places and so big he blocked the light from the small window in the spare bedroom. All this despite very intermittent watering, next to no feeding and maybe one re-potting in the last ten years, indeed some might say he's been thoroughly neglected and it's a miracle he's survived much less thrived. But thrive he has and if we didn't want to find him barring entry to the spare room drastic measures were inescapable so today we snipped and lopped and took several overgrown limbs away, leaving a shorter, slimmer model with soon to be shiny leaves and hopefully happier is his home. But all is not lost for the trimmings, thanks to a handy internet guide we have, we hope, created a few mini Bobs. They are now under cover and we'll watch them carefully over the next few weeks and then, if they are really lucky, friends and family can have a Bob of their very own...

Oh and don't tell Bob but we also identified a few more limbs for removal when he's recovered a bit.

Here in the undergrowth....

One of Bob's 5 new offspring

Heated airer or soil warmer?

A new slimline but could be trimmer Bob

Oh and while the compost was out we may have sown a few seeds too but that's for another day.