I'm over leaves. So is David Nash.

I have just finished gathering and arranging a few words about Kew Gardens' trees for the next Botanic Gardens of Australia and New Zealand newsletter. Rather than write about how pretty it's all looking in summer (that's the cold rainy season from June to August), I decided to focus on leafless trees in winter (the other cold rainy season) and dead trees.

Leaves really are over rated, at least in an aesthetic sense. Sure they produce oxygen, sugars and salad ingredients, but on mass they are just too...green.

After 12 months in London I've learnt to love trunks, twigs and pretty much any old tree. I love them in autumn and I love them in winter. Of course there are deciduous trees in Australian botanic gardens, but not as many. And not in this climate.

Today's post is mostly pictorial and not about living trees in winter, but dead trees in summer. From now until April 2013 we have renowned English sculptor David Nash living and working on site, preparing all kinds of woody creations. All his raw materials are already dead - he doesn't go around killing trees for his art.

We left David some dead trees standing, placed various off-cuts in neat piles, all for him to chainsaw and scorch into his various creations. I'll leave the explaining of the results to David but you can work it out yourself by visiting his beautiful woody art pieces in glasshouses and galleries, and outside in the cold and rain. It is summer after all.