The weather was glorious last weekend, so we spent a lot of time in our yard. As we've found out from several sources, the house was a rental for a few years before we bought it, which explains the quickly landscaped back yard and the overgrown shrubs in the front yard. Our camellia, pieris, and vine maple were overgrown and puff-ball-like from several seasons of non-pruning (or pruning with a not-so-delicate hand with the hedge trimmer).
J and I got out our tools, and equipped with pruning shears, a hack saw, and a bucket, we plucked and chopped away the dead limbs, and got rid of a lot of stuff that should have been cut back years ago. It's hard doing all of that work and still have your shrubs look wanting, but we realize that this is a process that could take years of care to correct. I'm okay with that, because they already look so much better. The bushy thing on the right side of the photo is our vine maple in the process of being trimmed up a bit. We also had a few volunteers here and there, one of which happened to be a tree growing nearly into our fence. As you can see, J ripped out the tree with his bare hands and rightfully earned his "man card" for the weekend.
Little was thoroughly impressed with the feat of strength and despite his cast, proceeded to walk around the yard trying to lift things 10 times his size while saying "heeeaaavy" "heeeeavvvy" and grunting. The testosterone was palpable that Saturday afternoon. The green waste can was filled to the brim and we were all dirty and incredibly tired.
I also tackled the side yard next to our driveway, which warrants an entire post to itself. It seems like it was just a trash pile for the various residents both recent and past. I turned up lots of glass, some bike parts, a bit of clothing, and two separate layers of landscaping plastic. I guess whenever things got too shitty, they just covered it in plastic and a bit of dirt to cultivate some moss and dandelions.
Next up? A lawnmower!
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