Done With That!

This is hedge pruning week.  We have a half acre lot and two sides are bordered with hedges, one holly, the other fir.  Once a year, in July, they get trimmed.  With the weather moderated and the Open Garden behind us, it was time for the task. 

 We started with the inside of the long holly hedge.  Once it's all trimmed up you hardly even notice it here in the back yard. 

 It goes on, through the secret garden, and along the property line, with a bit of cedar mixed in here and there. There are also several stand alone holly pillars throughout the yard. 

We got that done Monday morning.  On Tuesday we tackled the fir hedge.  We got both sides of this green wall done, took care of another holly pillar, and started on the upper section beyond the gate. 

 This hedge was planted withr fir seedlings 35 years ago and was lovely for a long time.  But now individual trees are dying.  We were working on the pruning when we came to a decision.  This was too much work, the hedge was slowing dying, and we had plenty of other shrubs to hide the neighbors. This fall we are going to hire a tree crew to come in and remove the whole remaining fir hedge. And they can take care of the part of the juniper hedge along the driveway that decided to up and die this spring too. 

Oh, and just for kicks, Tuesday afternoon I went into the city for my biannual mammogram. Such fun things to do this week!

Today, Wednesday, we tackled the backside of the holly hedge, the neighbor's side. As with the other days, we were out working by 8:00 and finished about noon. 

We hope the neighbor appreciates this well groomed hedge. The rest of the area is kind of a wasteland. 

We pushed a lot of the trimmings back under the hedges, but we still have this debris pile to deal with.  It will go out in the yard waste bins.  It will take several cycles to get it all hauled away, but there's no hurry now. 

Tom still has several holly pillars to trim. 

But for today, he's tuckered out.  So is his ladder holding, debris clean up assistant.  

Tomorrow Tom will finish up, while I will be on standby in the kitchen, baking a cake and making some macaroni salad for Friday.  It's my birthday on Friday and we'll be celebrating more than another year of age.  

We'll be done with that!