I was given a mulberry tree by my mother-in-law many years ago, before I knew very much about gardening or tree growing. Consequently it had to be moved and now sits quite happily in its current position. We did get fruit, lovely dark purple mulberries but the birds like them as much as we do; there isn’t much I could make out of them other than eat them fresh and they’re rather sweet and, if eaten in greater quantities, sickly.

I don’t mind the birds having tem; it is a useful structure in the back of the garden, the rambling rose climbs up, so does the honeysuckle and the kiwi – that lives on borrowed time as it hasn’t produced anything as yet!

The trim might look severe but it works, new branches sprout from the stumps and grow, forming a very even crown. When I cot them in the autumn I can use quite a few as bean poles, they are about 8ft long.

This was the other candidate for a trim, my silver birch. This one was a seedling I pulled out from between paving slabs tears ago and planted it in our garden when we moved here. The result was a massive tree, it overshadowed the garden and created loads of work for me in the autumn, clearing the leaves was no joke. Also the seedlings were coming up everywhere.

We had it cut last year and now I just trim the thin branches that sprout out from the stumps. Again it serves as a prop – two types of clematis are using it and I hope for a rose to join them.