Tough (Plant) Love

The area just below our deck -- surrounding the little goldfish pool -- was meant to be a sort of Appalachian version of a Japanese garden. There are azaleas -- all white for a serene feeling, a red lthread-leaved Japanese maple, forsythia, Japanese boxwoods, a yew, a crabapple and any number of dwarf evergreens in a dazzling array of green, yellow, and silver foliage types.

At least, when I bought and planted those evergreens twenty some years ago, they were labeled 'dwarf.' But they've grown and grown and grown till they are shading out the azaleas, blocking our view, and pretty much hiding the fish pool but for a tiny peek. 

The rhododendrons and yew were trying to hide the Japanese maple and a particularly aggressive Virginia Creeper was covering up the Dwarf Alberta Spruce.

What's more, one of the tallest evergreens was bowed and broken by last December's heaavy snow.

Time for Tough Love, also known as Major Pruning!

I crawled about in this jungle, wielding long-handled loppers and pruning shears, while John and his chain saw dealt with the really big stuff.  And John and the Kubota hauled away the trimmings to a brush pile down in one of our fields. 

Now the Dwarf Alberta and the Japanese Maple can breathe! The rhododendrons look awful and we'll have no blooms to speak of next year but I suspect they'll be back by the following year.

 We can see the fishpool again, as well as its little waterfall. We can see the graceful shape of the crabapple's trunk.

 And most of the bent- over gold evergreen has been removed.  The branches that remain will probably go vertical and become leaders and in another ten or twenty years they will probably have to come down.

It's a start -- there is a lot more to remove so that the azaleas can bee seen. And there are many, many more areas of our yard that need Tough Love. And the yard of our rental house is due for refurbishing.

But just for now, I think I'll collapse with a cider.  And some ibuprohen. I'm exhausted but aglow with virtue!