From A Christmas Tree To A Spiral Topiary || My First Ever Attempt!!

Hi everyone, it's Jeanette here again from Enthusiastic Gardener and I hope you had a very happy Christmas, a lovely Christmas day. Here in England we couldn't be with our families as much as we would have wished for but it is what it is and it's time for Christmas to go, in my opinion, from my front garden at least. I think what I might do is try out some topiary on them. I'm feeling topiary-ish. This is an Alberta spruce which I got specifically for these front pots to decorate as little miniature Christmas trees and yes, it's a nod to my Canadian friend Chris Stubbings. Hello Chris, my new gardening friend in Canada. I don't know if Alberta is near you as well, probably not, but anyway, hello to Chris Stubbings from Canada. He has a fabulous channel if you want to check out particularly ponds and the most amazing ponds and landscape imaginable. So anyway, I'm going to dismantle all this. Christmas is going from the front at least and I'm going to try out some topiaries. Now I don't know if these Alberta spruce are suitable for topiaries, possibly not, but I'm going to give it a try and see what happens and it'll be fun anyway. Who cares? So here we are, I have my two Alberta spruce little Christmas trees and I don't want to just plant them in the garden, I want to do something a little bit interesting with them. So I thought for one of them I'm going to try a spiral topiary and then the other one I'm going to try a bonsai. Now I've never done either of these before but it's worth giving it a go and as always I've been sitting there watching tons of YouTube how-to videos. So the one I'm going to do first is the spiral topiary. I'm not going to do both today, I think one's enough for one day. So yes, spiral topiary today and the one I'm going to choose for that is the one with the best shape all round, which I think is this one here. So we're going to put that to one side, that is another project. This one is going to be the spiral topiary and if all goes wrong, it's not the end of the world is it? So there we go, I've got a little turntable. Now the first thing we need to do, we need to get some ribbon or some rope or something to put the shape on and then we'll start cutting. Right, so the idea is we put the string on first in the shape and I've noticed that here it's a little bit bare so I'm going to start the spiral going this way. So we'll use this as the very back and I'm just going to tie it on here. Where the string is, is where I've got to cut. So I have to do this until I'm happy with the shape and I think that you have to get smaller towards the top, smaller gaps, so that's going to be the fat bit. I have got some spray paint because I thought if I spray paint it, I'd take the string off. I'm going to cut these bits away anyway, so it gives me a guide. Is it a windy day and it's all come back on me? Right, okay, we have done that. Take the string away now, get paint all over me. So that is the shape that I'm cutting. I don't know if you can see that on the camera, but I can see it. I'm going to start in the middle. Oh gosh, let's just do it. Let's just do it. So I'm going in right to the stem, following my purple line. All will become clear, I hope. I'm just doing the basic shaping first. Right, let's go down to the bottom. And the bottom. I can see beginnings of a shape. I'm just cutting them roughly, then I think I would get my shears out, the beginnings of it, to see the stem. So I'm getting the basic shape, aren't I? I'm going to go and get my shears, I think. I think we've just got to be brave. I need to sort this bit out here. It kind of feels like it's ending. I've got a really tiny bit here. It's not too bad. It ends there, unfortunately, for some reason. I've got the little bits. I haven't got enough there. Anyway, it's fine, it's fine. Let's see the fine-tuning. It's very bad light out here today. I've got a video in. I'm trying to define greatness. Yes, I think the important thing is to get everything off the trunk, just to be exposed, and just do one little thing too much. All right, I'm getting there, I believe. Go on and on, couldn't you? And then one little bit, you do too much, you ruin the whole thing. I think it's better for me to stop. Try and make See, that's where it goes wrong there. It's too little. However, this is much better. Now, what do I do with the top? See, it can't have ends, doesn't it? What do I do? I need to take the needle off. Yes, that's what I do. That should be right. That should go. And that should go. I think I'll just trim the top. I find the ends a bit odd, actually. Doesn't it? I think I need to take this off, yes, I think I need to take this off, there we go, it's gone now anyway, right, so, it's not too bad is it, I mean it spirals doesn't it, let's do some fine tuning, going in my coffee, sometimes you could just do, I should imagine, as you know I have done this before, I should imagine you could do one snip, would just make it all come together and look perfect, but on the other hand, one snip could just ruin the whole thing, obviously you need practice but you have to start somewhere, you'll never know how to do it if you never, what do you think Rich, come and see, does it, I was just saying one snip could make it look perfect, on the other hand, one snip could make it, I like it, could be perfect still but, a little bit of a bare bit here, yeah it kind of ends there, no because if you look this way, it looks the other way, so that's the front and the back, right, I'm going to leave it at that, I think that's the safe thing to do, yes I'm just going to repot it in a nicer pot, there we go, that looks pretty good, right, what do you think, I think for my first time, it's not a complete disaster is it, and I think as it grows I can continue trimming, this is of course what it looked like before and I had plans for this one, this is going to have a radical transformation too, but I think it's fun to just try something different in things that I could cut off, but I think the safest thing is to stop at the moment, when I can see things that maybe I should cut, but I think the key is, before you cut you need to pull it away to see what it would look like, the top has gone slightly peculiar, it kind of ends with a bit of a gap that shouldn't be there, if I cut it, cut the apex any further down it would be this high, so I think I better stop, anyway I'm really pleased and it was a lot of fun and it was nice to get out in the garden because being at work all the time, it's always dark and then it rains, in England it's been raining non-stop every weekend, so anyway that's it for today, my spiral potpourri, let me try and end it on a good view for you, there's their front and the back, anyway thank you for watching and stay tuned because at some point we're going to bonsai this one, I've got to watch a few more YouTube videos first, thank you for watching and take care and have fun in your gardens, bye!