Yard Work

Mom is here to visit. We were outside going through some boxes of stuff that is mine that was stored at her house. Once that was done we stayed outside talking. (At 3pm...couldn't have done that a month ago) It was great. After a while I noticed that the branches of one of our bushes were drooping way down over the side walk in the front, so low even the girls had to watch for them. I had DD8 get the pruners and cleared up that problem.

That led to trimming the larger bush by the door. (the one I plan to axe soon. It is not to my taste, even when in bloom.)

And since I was right there by the front door I decided to trim the ivy in the brick planter box. It was taking over the porch. A whole foot of porch space was covered. After I got that cleared, I decided to trim the ivy a bit here and there to clean up the look. By the time I was done I had changed my mind and decided to rip out the lot.

Note- If you are ever given the choice between cutting/cleaning up English ivy or kudzu, choose the kudzu. It is softer and much easier to deal with, even with it's longer length. Ivy catches whatever it is growing on and does NOT let go.

I haven't decided what exactly I am going to do with the planter, maybe roses, maybe cover it and put a seat, maybe seal it and put a small koi fountain. We'll see.

Next job on the list, cutting out the wood stems that still remain and cleaning up the pile o' vines in the front lot. We were out of lawn and garden bags after the first was filled.

I think this will be a nice change of look for the front stoop, whatever I decide.

Here are some "BEFORE" pictures. I wish I had taken some today, but it was too late before I thought of it. These are this past April a few weeks before we moved in.




The ivy had grown a foot inward to cover the porch, as I said. It had grown more than that in the other direction, along the wall under the overhang. You can barely make out the tops of the bricks in the pic. There was about 8 inches more of ivy this afternoon.

Now all of this is out. The clean-up job remains of getting woody stems out and trying to clean up the walls. You can see in the pic where the previous owner had trimmed the vines back and they had left grabbers behind, even pealing paint in some spots.

I'll go take a pic to post, and keep you updated as needed on the changes.

Cheers