Training a natal plum shrub into the shape of a tiny tree

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Natal plums are wonderful. They have a wonderful green color, grow very slowly, and require very little maintenance. I've had one here by the patio for years and years, and recently I realized that, after all these years, it was finally growing out of its space, so I trimmed it back, and afterwards it looked terrible.


So I kept trimming, wondering what to do, until it was very close to being small enough for me to just take out. I put some rocks along the flagstone, which is where it had originally been overlapping. And as I kept trimming it back, it started to look like a tiny tree. I decided to keep going, and prune it as if it were a tree, down to a main trunk, with just a few branches.

I've pruned trees before, and the idea is to just create a nice canopy, allowing room so that people can walk underneath it without bonking their head, in this case a person about the size of Stuart Little. Here, I'll zoom in on the trunk.


There ya go, a good four inches of clearance for you to stroll under, I just measured it. In fact, you could be five inches tall and just have to duck your head a little bit. The mulch there is just the dead leaves that have accumulated, and I'll try to keep it mulched with appropriately-small mulch.

I don't know if this actually is considered true bonsai, but it has a nice Japanese feel to it, and I might be tempted to get a tiny bridge to put next to it, painted red for luck!

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