Also on our recent garden tour, in fact in the same garden as the rare twisted Japanese bitter orange bush I discussed last time, was a very unusual sight. A blue Atlantic cedar trained on a fence. I insisted judy shoot it, even iun the harsh afternoon light.

Now, the blue Atlantic cedar (Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca’) is a tree which can make an impressive and stately specimen and can reach over 100ft/30m high. Here, in this small town garden, it was trained into parallel tiers on a boundary fence – like an espaliered apple. I’ve never seen such a thing.

Most visitors just passed it by, eager to admire the lush vegetable garden and the great variety of well-tended fruit trees and bushes – including a fig tree (not bad for our icy winter climate). But to see a forest tree trained so carefully was both unexpected and fascinating. Not sure I’ve got the patience to try it myself – but it’s a great thing to see.