Friday, July 20, 2018

Phew! That Job Is Done!

July means holly pruning time. 

We have stand alone pillars and a 100 plus foot holly hedge. Tom does the stand alones, like this one,  without me. They require a tall ladder, but on even ground. 

 The hedge is another matter. Tom got a good start on it before we left for Whidbey Island. But then to get the high parts, he needs a ladder holder. That's my job. Then there's the clean up. On our yard side, we stuff most of the trimmings back under the hedge. We got all of that done Thursday.



Today, knowing it was going to get hot in the coming days, we hurried home from our Friday morning breakfast to do the outside, neighbor's side, of the hedge.  Fortunately it is all along a driveway, so we have easy access. Again I am the ladder holder and the cleaner upper. 

We worked from about 10:15 to 1:30, and then we were finished! It is such a relief to have that job done. We have to remove most of the trimmings from that side. Here they are, all rolled up and waiting for transport to the dump.
Oh, I see Charlie photo bombed this one. Since I feed him now, he follows me around outside. 

While I was taking photos of the hedge, a few other things caught my eye, like the purple drumstick alliums in the euonymus bush with the purple glass flower.  


Or the purple clematis and the white hydrangia "Pinky Winky"
 Or how the deck looks from the hedge, through the bushes. 
 The self-sown poppies and the crocosmia.
 Or the first sunflowers rising above the sweet peas. 
 The day lilies on the west property line.

And here is part of my birthday gift from Jill and the kids.

By the time we got cleaned up, had lunch, and I went grocery shopping, then caught up on reading blogs, I was not interested in cooking. We went to Red Robin.

Let the pageant continue!

15 comments:

  1. Sounds like an enormous job. Do you have any idea how you’re going to handle some of those jobs in years to come? Sounds like you might want to leave that out of your birthday pageant next year.

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    1. Each year we wonder how much longer we will tackle these jobs ourselves. Eventually we will have to hire them out, but it will mean we will probably have to settle for a lower standard. No one ever takes the care that the owner gardener does. The other option is to sell this place and move into something smaller with little or no garden. We aren't ready for that yet.

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  2. We have had 3 weeks of heat and drought and everything that was blooming is now done. Supposed to rain today and I am so hoping it does. I do not water my garden as it has soaker hoses on timers, but during a hot drought even that is not enough. We have prickly hollies,but I just let them grow into 40 foot trees.

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  3. As usual, you are both so industrious. And that cool weather was sure a treat, wasn't it? Wish it could stay, but it's summer so I'll take what we get. :-)

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  4. You are never lacking for something to do. I am going to suggest the idea of birthday pageant to my friend who refers to May as her birthday month, although her celebrations are very low key.

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  5. That's one prickly job and I can understand why you're happy it's over. At least you got to enjoy not cooking at the end of the day - Hooray for the pageant!

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  6. Hedges look great when they are well trimmed. as you say trimming is hard work.

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  7. Ton's of work but the end result counts. I'm like you on hiring out the work. Doubt you will be happy.
    By the way, you feed Charlie--he is yours. Enjoy.

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  8. What a big job! I love how you use the tarps to make clean up a little easier. They turned out great.

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  9. Well done, I bet you are quite happy that jon is over and done with for another year! Your gardens look great! Your flag is very cute! :)

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  10. I love to do yard work and not cook. I suppose that would be a pageant for me. It also seems that your entire year, every year, is a pageant for you, doing what you love to do, seeing the fantastic results it yields, and eating out when you want to!

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  11. Lots of hard work keeping a hedge ( or a garden) looking good.
    I like your new flag.And the sitting area seen through the bushes.
    Your glass flowers are amazing. I didn't get far with making any. Maybe in the winter I'll do some.

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  12. I love your gardens, though I wouldn't enjoy doing all the work. Thanks for sharing, it's such a delight to see!

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  13. Really beautiful, Linda. Wish I could tour your garden in person! I planted those geraniums with the multi colored leaves for several years in a row. The leaves added such wonderful depth to my garden -- even though they never actually bloomed.
    Having a Seattle summer here -- lots and lots of rain. Some of the tuberous begonias have rotted, but color still abounds.

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  14. Your yard is always beautiful and all that hard work shows. Sounds like that kitty cat wants to be yours.

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