For the last five years or so, weekends have been very special for Fairfield businessman Aldo Pecora. Every Sunday he rises at the crack of dawn, goes outside and begins work on his hobby. Aldo is an expert topiarist, and spends hours carefully trimming and pruning conifers, privets and other plants into standards, cones, balls, spirals and novelty shapes. Aldo uses all kinds of techniques and tricks to make sure the plants grow exactly as he wants, for example he attaches bricks to branches to weigh them down so each one grows at the perfect angle.
Nunzio’s triumph
Creating living plant sculptures seems to run in the Pecora family. Aldo’s father-in-law Nunzio also trims plants into shapes. For the last twenty five years he has been working on a very large topiarised kangaroo, as well as a full-sized emu and a woman’s hat. Perhaps his most eye-catching plant sculpture is a fabulous variegated privet divan, which looks tremendously inviting and comfortable. When Burke’s Backyard visited, Nunzio proudly showed Don a certificate of appreciation presented to him by the local council for his outstanding efforts in the garden.
Further reading
If you love the look of trimmed conifers but don’t want to do all the work required to keep them in shape, don’t miss Don Burke’s article No-Clip Topiary. It’s in the April edition of the Burke’s Backyard Magazine, at newsagents now for $4.20.