Father's Day Fish & Clips

Last week for Father's Day I was given these great fish-looking plant clips and a small garden ornament shaped like a very pretty concrete cupcake.

The plant clips came from a store in Germany. They are for my beloved espalier (no more beloved than my daughter though, but close). I've been using the plastic "ribbon-like" ties to hold the dwarf pear branches to the cables I strung to shape the espalier.

New addition to the
Harry Potter Garden

The advantage of the clips is that they're easily movable & reusable, give the branches plenty of room to grow and are a more subtly gray green.

The disadvantages of the plastic ribbon on a roll included that they were most often NOT reusable. I'd have to cut the tie between the branch and cables, with an Exacto knife, when the branch growth started to stretch the tie (and I wasn't very good at this -- there's a LOT of ties in that espalier). I would always forget where I last put the roll of plastic ribbon. God forbid I drop it and have it roll across the deck and have to sloppily re-spool it (only did THAT once). They are physically impossible to tie with gloves on. And the color? Who chose neon green? On young small branches with little leaf coverage, there'd be more bright green ties than leaves.

I made quick use of all 40 clips which came in two sizes. I'm campaigning for more. We'll see where that goes. May have to wait until next Father's Day.

My daughter also bought me a small concrete garden ornament at the local Kidz Biz at the Farmer's market down the road. She participates and sells glass bead necklaces, but bought this from another kid's booth. I promptly added it to her Harry Potter Garden (though honestly, the Harry Potter Garden is now more mine than hers. The extent of her participation in its upkeep stops at glancing at it as she walks by).

And the green of the ties clashes with the green of the leaves.
I'm an art director. This is not acceptable.

No fuss no muss clips, more subtle, easier to use and move.

Here's the "old-growth" side of the espalier. The younger trees, to the left, were added when the previous trees in that spot
were either infested with aphids (a plum tree) or had weird cancerous growths that stopped leaf production (apple).
The new pear trees are slower growers, but they seem to be impervious to pestilence & disease.

By Garden Walk Buffalo, the whole area will be covered in self-seeding morning glory vines,
which we named (more appropriately) Devil's Snare, a plant integral to the plot
in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

I'm looking for an old shoe or boot to add. It'd make a good portkey.
See the Mandrake's head peeking out there by Trevor the frog?
If you don't know what these things are, nor are familiar with Trevor,
you cannot appreciate the Harry Potter Garden to its fullest extent.

The jungle gym, which has not been used by my 13 year old in eight years, got a makeover
with hanging window boxes and a new and bright rooftop fabric cover.

All set for garden visitors, mudbloods included. 

Oh, and I got tickets to see Elvis Costello.
I guess I've been a very good father.