I love the outside of our house, BUT since the dawn of this house purchase, we have been wanting to get rid of those bushes that crowd along the entire front of the house. They block some of the pretty features of the brick and impede the walkway to the front door.
I shared with you a couple of weeks ago some of the work we had already started doing on the landscaping of this yard - primarily digging out un-wanted plants on the side of the house. But imagine my surprise when I got home from work the other day and found Joey with a chainsaw in hand whacking these front bushes to death...
Half the bushes were already missing by the time I arrived on the scene to snap a few pictures of the progress (so sorry there's no "before" pic).
The original plan was to have the bushes yanked out of the ground using the tow-strap and SUV/Truck method we used last fall, but alas, Joey explained the trunks of these particular bushes were so big and strong that it broke the tow-strap in 2 seconds of trying that method.
So, Joey's Plan B was to take a chainsaw to 'em and cut them down as low as they would go, and then dig the rest of the roots out of the ground. Plan B = More work, Less fun. Well, Joey had fun with the chainsaw, I guess.
The bush that stuck out into the pathway to the front of the house took the longest to dismantle. Once Joey trimmed part of the bush away, we could see someone had hung 2 bricks in the center of the bush (anyone with landscaping experience know why this was done?). Eventually, he trimmed down to the "trunk" and then cut across that to remove as much as possible.
Whew! The front already looks so much more open and inviting with no bushes! And we still have new flowers to plant to add more curb appeal.
This picture gives you a little insight into what lays behind the bushes: an ugly hose-holder, a pipe that comes from the basement and sticks straight out of the house (to drain the sump pump), the stumps/roots from the bushes, and bunch of leaves and junk to rake up. We have much clean-up to do.
One item I do love is the window box that sits on top of the cement corbels. The box itself is old and rotting, but Joey plans to build a new box. It will be so pretty sitting in front of the house once it's bursting with flowers. The cement corbels under the box, the cement window sills, and the cement "corners" are some of the details I love about the outside of the house. We want to do our best to show them off.
So, here's what we were left with at the end of the day. It will all get hauled to the dump to be added to the compost piles. Anyone have a large truck bed and want to help?
I just love that I can finally see THE HOUSE in it's entirety and can't wait to start planting pretty things around it. So much work, but so worth it!
Now to dig those thick, deep roots out of the ground... we'll get to it whenever spring weather decides to show up again!
No comments:
Post a Comment