Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Pruning and Planting

We are proud of ourselves. All of those plants we purchased last Monday were in the ground by last Saturday!

We have lived in this house for almost 40 years. We did all of the lot clearing and earth moving and wall building and landscaping ourselves in the first few years after we moved in. Many things have changed over the years, in the house and in the garden. One area that had not changed was the shrubbery along the front walk. 

This photo, taken last October, shows a large mugo pine that is trying to take over the sidewalk. Behind that is a Viburnum davidii that has been hacked back various times and again wants to engulf the new hand rail. Along the front, under the Viburnum burkwoodii that has turned golden,  is a sick azalea and another viburnum that was very scraggly after the winter. 
We took most of it out and cut back the big Viburnum davidii, which regrows back for the base quite well. 

 We'll trim back the scraggly branches on the viburnum when grows new shoots from the base. There are some other viburnums that are also cut back. 
We saved a few layered starts from the old azalea and planted them back farther to see if they will survive. The new plants are in. After the Viburnum burkwoodii finishes blooming, we'll prune off a few of the branches that are reaching forward to give the new plants more light. 
It's looking a bit bare now, but tidy, and we have our sidewalk back. 
 And the pile of prunings and removed shrubs and clipped fern fronds is growing. There's another pile out under a cedar tree. The yard waste bins go out full every two weeks. 
We're thinking it's time to load up the van and make several trips to the yard waste site at the local dump. Cedar Grove Compost Co. will make good use of it. 
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Since writing this post on Sunday we have begun the hauling away process. Our 1998 Plymouth mini van  serves as family and field trip transport, furniture and lumber mover, and with the seats removed and the back lined with a  tarp, a landscaper's truck. 

More loads will go out today. Gotta' make hay while the sun shines. :-)

12 comments:

  1. Those Mugo pines are space hogs, you will enjoy your walkway much more now:)

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  2. Impressed with the clean up and your energy. I am afraid this year, I will be hiring mine done.

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  3. What a difference you have made! It looks good and should fill in nicely without crowding your walkway.

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  4. A lot of work but your garden always looks so lovely, so well worth it!

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  5. Good work. I think rain is back in the forecast starting tomorrow but it’s certainly a beautiful first day of spring today.

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  6. Just beautiful! And although it's a lot of work, the results are always lovely. This one especially, to my eyes. :-)

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  7. You've been hard at work. It's looking very tidy now.

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  8. When I see bare ground , I tend to put in too many plants and then I wonder why they over grow. I have some hacking to do this spring too.

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  9. sounds fun to have so many growing things...we have a few. lots of cacti!

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  10. Impressive that the plants came home and got planted so quickly, especially since you did all that clearing out as well. Looking forward to seeing your newly planted area grow!

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  11. Gorgeous yard Linda. The hard work shows.

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  12. Your hard work will pay off as the seasons progress.

    I love weeding and I love pruning. My husband and children would groan whenever I went out with my clippers or chain saw. I wanted everything to look like a bonsai. And they had to come out and help bag the rubbish and haul to the street.

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