Projects Never End

Most of my subdivision was built in the early 1970's.  Many folks put in very nice landscapes.  Many of those same people moved away.  Unfortunately, many of the folks who bought their homes have done absolutely nothing to keep the landscaping looking nice.

On some homes you cannot see anything of the front of the house except the garage door.  All the shrubbery has totally engulfed it.  I see small maple trees growing out of gutters.  Tall arborvitae are completely surrounding brick garages and wooden siding to my complete amazement.  I heard one neighbor complaining about all the ants crawling on the house.  Well, did it ever occur to him that having everything growing 'ON' the house might be the reason?

All of this leads me in to my latest 'project'.  I've spent a good deal of time the last few years looking at the yard and asking myself if the plantings are adding anything to the look of the yard, or perhaps, actually distracting from it.  So, the latest to 'bite the dust' are two yews, planted in 1974 when the deck was planned.  They have been given a severe haircut and they will have until next spring to either leaf-out on old wood or truly 'bite the dust' and get relegated to the curb for yard-waste pick-up.

Here is the photo journey for this past week, which is also why I have had no time to blog.

This was the view from my back doorwall on Wednesday, which was not really very attractive.

By Friday night I had made some headway, but it began to seem that no matter how much I cut, there was still more to do.

This was the view this morning.  I finished all the cutting last night.  In the process of all of this I found an old bird feeder buried under all the limbs.  I also found another juniper that has been struggling for who knows how many years underneath the yew.

My walkway is now much wider.  The A/C unit will get a lot more air circulating around it.  The peony will get more sun.  Assuming these two yews leaf-out in spring, I will endeavor to keep them at this size or smaller.  I have done this drastic pruning before and had good luck, so that a once 15-foot tall yew is now kept at four feet.  And lo and behold, I can 'see' my backyard.

If these two yews end up having to be removed, I have lots of flowers I can move into this area, flowers that I moved out years ago when the yews started getting too big.  Having a large yard is a lot of work, unless of course you prefer to live in a virtual jungle.  I am already looking forward to the next garden cycle.