I AM hoping that the long, frosty spell during January will have killed off a number of troublesome pests and diseases in the garden, including the many slugs (and their eggs) that have seemed to multiply during the mild winters of recent years.

The ground was frozen hard for several weeks, making normal garden chores such as weeding, digging and clearing herbaceous plants difficult, and nipping the fingers and toes of the gardeners.

One way of keeping warm while being usefully employed is to do some tree pruning, and David Ostle and I have turned our attention to the large monkey-puzzle tree on the main lawn at Brockhole.

It is a large and venerable specimen and, although we do not believe it was a part of the original design when the gardens were laid out by Thomas Mawson, we are fairly sure it must have been planted soon afterwards, so it must be nearly 100 years old.

All trees change shape as they grow and mature; monkey-puzzles tend to lose their lower branches as they age, revealing the 'elephant's foot' shape of the base of the trunk.

Our tree is no exception and over the last three or four years the lower branches have begun to die back, giving the whole tree a slightly tatty appearance.

Pruning a monkey-puzzle tree is not a job for the fainthearted! The wood of the dead branches is hard as iron, capable of blunting a pruning saw in record time.

In addition the branches may still be tipped with the tough, prickly, scale-like leaves that give the tree its name - if these catch your arms or face they can scratch badly, and if they dropped on your head they could quite possibly be fatal!

So there we were, David at the top of a ladder, armed with several pruning saws, and me at the bottom, holding the ladder and wearing a chain saw helmet against attack from above, both of us wearing thick coats and leather gloves against the spiky leaves.

All was well until it became clear that the last few branches were out of our reach.

They quite spoiled the effect but how to prune them out?

The answer came in the form of a pole saw, which we have had for several years but seldom used.

Its four aluminium poles screw together and a saw blade screws to the tip of the last pole.

Our reach thus extended by several metres, we were then able to remove the last few dead branches while standing on terra firma.

There is nothing quite like having the right tools for the job!

Photographs enclosed:

1.

The Monkey-Puzzle tree at Brockhole.

2.

The 'elephants foot' base of the trunk.

3.

The pole saw.

Jobs for the gardener this week

_ Cut away last year's foliage of Eipmedium and Lenten lilies (Helleborus corsicus).

This will allow you to see the flowers properly before the new leaves are produced.

* Sow leek seeds in trays in a cold greenhouse or cold frame, sow onion seeds in a heated greenhouse for a really early start and really big onions!

* Lift and divide clumps of snowdrops when they have finished flowering but while the foliage is still green.