Wednesday, July 15, 2015

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! 

18 comments:

  1. Oh Linda, I am sending you an early HAPPY BIRTHDAY wish, and I must say that you and Tom continue to amaze me with all you manage to accomplish in a single day. Whew! If I were there with you, working alongside, I'd be sure to give you both a nice microbrew to finish the day with. In any case, I'll drink it for you. I'm sure going to miss that old oak tree when you take it down so I will enjoy it every day until then. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Linda, that is a lot of work. And Happy Birthday, girlfriend!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Maybe your could just spray paint that brown dead hedge for the rest of the season? Oh, all right, I will keep garden advice to myself from now on.
    Happy Birthday wishes!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Trimming is hard work and you have to know the correct way to prune and trim.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Olga, I had thought of that myself! But then I just decided to pretend it belonged to the neighbors.

    ReplyDelete
  6. ambitious...today my hubby turned the boat over so he can work on this inside-he's now gone to bed early...and he's 4 years younger than me...lol!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hope you have a wonderful birthday. don't work too hard. The hedge really is looking good.

    ReplyDelete
  8. You guys are super hard workers.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That cake and mac salad sound promising!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow, did you have the work to do. Better thee than me.
    Have a wonderful birthday tomorrow and make it a day of fun and rest.

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a job! The hedge makes such a beautiful fence. Hope you have a very special and happy birthday tomorrow!

    ReplyDelete
  12. It'll be nice to be done with that hedge and it'll give you more space to plant fun stuff! So much work to keep a hedge looking good! Happy Birthday, Linda!

    ReplyDelete
  13. That's an amazing amount of hard work. Can you hire someone to do the worst of it? The yard is beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  14. That's an amazing amount of hard work. Can you hire someone to do the worst of it? The yard is beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  15. You two amaze me. I guess all the hard work you do is the reason why you don't get any older when your birthday rolls around. You are staying trim and fit with all that trimming! Happy birthday!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Happy Birthday! Looking forward to hearing about your birthday.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Your yard looks really, really lush and gorgeous... I'm sure that dead hedge will be replaced and looking wonderful by next year. You are both the best of neighbors.

    ReplyDelete

I would love to read your comments. Since I link most posts to Facebook, you may comment there if you do not have an account. I have eliminated Anonymous comments due to spammers.