Sally, my thoughts exactly as I was reading through Gita's thread! I'm having fun with a similar area in front of my living room, putting in a couple of little evergreens where the Harry Lauder's Walking Stick stump is and pulling out a couple other things that weren't quite working. If the yew that I just trimmed back dies, I won't cry... I can think of better things to put there, now, although I probably won't remove it as long as it looks good.
FWIW, my parents did limb up a trio of hemlock trees. The result wouldn't have much curb appeal, but since they're along the wall of their (high) porch, the tops are really the important part.
Taking out old, overgrown or unhealthy foundation plantings can give a house such a fresh look! If you do it, please take before & after photos so Sally can write about it... :-)
Your Neck Of the Woods part 12 Dog Daze
Geez--ALL that just seems like too huge a thing for me to handle.
And--too $$$$ to hire someone to do it all. But--something to consider...
I KNOW the foundation plants are overgrown--after all--I have lived here 45 years!
You know the funny thing--most people don't even know there are 2 windows, at
ground level, behind those Junipers. Those areat level #3 of my house.
The club room, the guest bedroom, the exit door to the patio, etc.
Level #4 does not have any windows to speak of. two tiny ones that are the level
of the patio floor. This is the Shop level and the laundry room and storage.
I don't, actually, mind how that all looks--but i DO realize it is overgrown.
My house front faces N.--so there would not be much light for too many things.
Gita
Critter, we use hedge clippers on our yew but ours is a whole hedge of them not just one bush.
I use hedge clippers on boxwood shrubs growing around the Cox cable box in my front yard. I shear off everything hogging the sidewalk, enough on the inside to make room for cable repair people, and then trim the rest.
I use loppers and hand-pruners on the other shrubs when I prune, which is not often enough! My yews, for example, could have benefited from regular pruning when they were young so that they wouldn't have become so gangly that the branches splay when it snows. I finally gave them a serious pruning back this year and they look better already.
I hacked off 1/2 of the overgrown shrubs by my front door, and I want to have them taken out and replaced. I'd really like to find some large Ilex glabra, but I'm not sure how easy that will be.
Isn't Ilex glabra pretty common? Maybe not the species but I know they sold a bunch of cultivars at my local nursery.
Very thankful for our township workers. Two of them came by in a big truck today before it started raining and they pitch forked AAALLLL of the branches from the pruned yew. We spent quite a lot of time cutting them up into smaller bits as required. I liked using power tools. Hehehehe.
Wow, that is great service from your town!
Jan and a Sawzall-- hoorahh! girl power
Good for you, Jan! It must have been great to get that load off your lawn.
Sequoia, I've seen I. glabra 'Shamrock' at my favorite garden center, but I was put off by the tags saying it only gets to be 3 feet tall (I should know better by now). A little research tells me it will reach 5 feet, which is about what I want. I haven't spent time looking elsewhere. I should probably do more research, too, because apparently I. glabra tends to get leggy.
It's too bad there aren't any evergreen native Viburnums.
"Jan and a Sawzall-- hoorahh! girl power"
LOL
I love those power tools, too.
Well the house is a construction zone once again. This time it is the new heating system, Josh is putting in for us.
Hehehehe
Yay for new heating systems!!!!! Nothing like toasty toes on a c c c old morning.
Yeah a native evergreen viburnum would be great Muddy. I just go Asian though and skirt the native thing...LOL
The world needs more Joshes!!!
Holly--You are so fortunate to have such a wonderful son who can do
all kinds of home repair jobs.
Of course--YOU raised this amazing man from childhood.
SO--you get a lot of the credit too....
Gita
Thanks Gita, I was a pretty young mother, guess love covers a lot of parenting mistakes.
Must say that all my children turned into pretty great people.
Holly--
Some day you need to enlighten us all about your early motherhood--
who was your 1st DH --and who left whom? Asking "WHY" would not be fair.
And, most of all--how did you meet Ric???????
You are such a perfect couple! Ooops--maybe I should not say that.
To be a "perfect couple" also takes a lot of effort and give and take and understanding.
Most people in the Estonian Community thought we were the "Perfect Couple".
But--that was only because they just saw the "happy, social" side of our marriage.
We were the do everything, help everywhere couple. The cook and bake and haul ones.
Still talking about the Estonian House functions here.
If you were to ask me what was missing--I would say communication.
We just never sat down and talked about things. Like 2 ships floating on the sea
with NO destination.
Oh well--I have you all to fill in. Thanks! Gita
LOL Gita, I was a bit of a free spirit.
Someone recently posted that these posts, even in subscriber threads, can possibly be accessed by google search..so I wouldn't go into any personal details here.
Seems nothing is private once you hit "send"---no matter what the topic.
At least--being on a website like DG may (??) offer a bit of protection.
I am not worried--my life has nothing super interesting to offer.
G.
Thanks for the input on pruning approaches!
I thought for sure Buttoneer would have posted by now about last weekend, but she's probably busy crafting away at her workbench!
She & Bob had a booth at Colorfest in Thurmont, so they stayed at our place Fri & Sat nights. What a blast! We girls stayed up late on Friday (Joyanna, too), chatting and putting cute Halloween earrings on display cards. We got to shop a "private sale" on her unique rings, too... Joyanna picked out a brilliant blue one, and I couldn't make up my mind so ended up with two beauties made from antique German buttons and a trilobite. *big grin* Bob showed off a couple of recent finds, including a rock with exposed bits of both gold and mica -- shiny! Gotta say, he's not as quiet and shy as you might think, once he starts to unwind. LOL
I wish we hadn't had a work-related BBQ to go to Saturday night.. it was fun, but it would have been great to hang out with Button & Bobbin instead! We'll just have to be sure to do this again.
Today is a school holiday. We were planning to go to PGH to see my folks, but Jim caught a bug, and we don't want to share it with them. So he's resting this afternoon, and we're enjoying the sunshine. Hoping to get some serious planting done this weekend... :-)
Oh, and Dutch Plant Farm's 50% off sale started LAST weekend, and I didn't see the email! Oops. Not that I need more things to plant, but I'll head out there and report on what selection remains. Their "sidewalk sale" of hard goods usually has some good deals, also.
That's really nice Jill. getting real face time with some of our virtual friends is special.
I started cutting on my overgrown Burford hollies. Stepped back and decided, for craps sake, I could use the same amount of time cutting one DOWN and getting it out, instead of perpetuating my pruning problems. Soo I am girding my loins for that after some iced tea...I already have shrubs that are waiting for a home and this would make room.
Also pulled up my Strelitzia and black runner EE. Potted the Strelitzia and storing the EE . I wrapped the EE roots in newspaper and stood it all in a mulch bag. Really unsure how to deal with it- it does not seem to have a bulb per se. Actually, I potted half the Strelitzia. I broke the bigger half off and its laying in the grass. The "smaller" half has several perfect leaves over four feet tall, and two side shoots, so there's plenty of it to grow outside next year.
Holly/Ric, I still have a huge Odora type EE out there. How do you treat those for storage?
I think my largest plumeria is actually starting to unfurl some buds... will it bloom before frost? can I drag that big pot inside if it doesn't? stay tuned...
Phew. So far the Burford is winning....
Jill, my Plumeria has taunted me again. Buds that turn black and fall off without opening. I had a nice cluster of bloom when it was two years or so old, and now couple years of this. I read that some may be very picky about drainage. Last year it was in a pot, this year in ground... I'm ditching the big one and keeping a small one I rooted off it this spring.
If yours is potted, and you can manage to drag it in...maybe you'll be blessed! The next few chilly nights will not be to its liking.
Sally, I just dig them up knock some of the dirt off them and stack them in Pepsi trays and tuck them under the old seed starting table in the upstairs room. Nice and warm. Last year I put my black runner EE's up there and let them go semi dormant. Kept them in the pot they were growing in and just let them mostly dry out. Every once in a while I would water them. I just wasn't sure they would take the same treatment as the big Portadora do.
It's in a BIG pot, Sally, with 3 other plumie cuttings! After all the recent rain, I'm pretty sure I can't drag the pot inside. I might try to put it in a smaller pot and see if it will keep its buds. Next spring, I'm resolving to wake the plumies early, inside, to give them a head start on blooming.
Great day yesterday. Garden Club luncheon, fashion show, flower arranging demo, and beautiful table top arrangements given out as door prizes. So sad that I didn't win one.
When I got home I jumped right in moving plants to the GH, garage and house. Dug up a few in-ground tropicals and re-potted, then dug up the dahlias. Boy those dahlias sure were pretty this year.
Babysat in Annapolis, but came home early cuz they had gotten sick. Did a cute project with the two older girlies. We made rose out of leaves. Their mommy put them in two short vases which were filled with acorns. Fun project. Don't know how long they will last but will make a neat fall centerpiece.
Jan, Oh so sorry poor sickies.
Love the fall leaf roses, I was just looking at a tutorial on making them and thought they looked like fun. I would think they would hold up pretty well.
I hope the girls get better soon. I like those centerpieces!
Holly, that reminds me...how was the Garden Club luncheon that was at your house? I can't remember whether you mentioned it already.
Oh the luncheon wasn't at my house, yet. I am on the schedule for next years Fall Picnic, which means I will have to try to keep the yard and gardens going good all summer long. Hopefully it will look a bit better than it did for the DG Fall Swap. If I can't get the work done myself next spring I won't wait so long to hire help.
Oh I thought it was this year.
Your yard is amazing! Every one of your beds was perfect. No unsightly leaves, no spent flower heads...just one beautiful plant after another, with lovely yard art here and there.
Holly, ditto to Muddy, you guys have a fabulous garden!
I got the annuals planted so very late that they were terribly small and hadn't filled in. Sure don't want a repeat of that next year.
Greenthumb's birthday was yesterday. Give him heck about getting another year older over here....
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1379054/
How'd it go with the Buford over the weekend Sally? I'm still a little sad you're getting rid of the old chap.
edited to add: I've been secretly rooting for the Burford..... ;-P
This message was edited Oct 20, 2014 8:01 AM
Hmph so it's YOUR fault... might have known!!
the shovel prune hasn't gotten it yet, it's bought some time before pick pruning. I don't hate it per se, I hate it being bigger than I wanted, and now would need major cutting back AND dedicated yearly maintenance to keep in bounds. It is still possible I will end up with a mangled stump that might grow out in spring.
Well some of those hollies can be tenacious for sure! You should get Mark out there to help dig that baddie out.
I have 2 big ferns a huge Boston and a good size asparagus. I am trying to decide if I should take the time to divide them and just keep a small section of each plant but the size of them is what makes them so worthy of taking up GH space. Just not sure I have the space to keep them as they are and if not are they worth keeping at all. Oh the decisions we all have to make come Fall.
Would anyone coming to Critters on the 25th be interested in them depending on what I decide.
Mark trimmed the hedge of Euonymus today...yay...and he will help with holly eventually if I ask.
Holly, not me. I had a big asparagus fern and got tired of the needle drop...planted it out to see what it would do and 'accidentally' losing it was OK by me
Just a note... the pick-up party for amaryllis & lily bulbs is this Saturday, at 2 pm, my house. We'll hang out a bit and then head over to Chef Lin for an early dinner. You don't have to be picking up bulbs to join us! :-)
I'm taking in my parents' fern this winter... going to cut it back pretty severely but be better about watering it than I was with the previous one! Holly, you could probably give your fern a major haircut -- like down to 6 inch stubs -- and let it regrow over the winter. At least it wouldn't be a space hog the whole time, that way.
Re ferns- someone once posted about hanging the fern with a dry cleaning bag under and around such that it caught all the leaves, maybe even for humidity.
I wanted to post a few pics from the wedding. Mostly my pics are from the weekend activities not of the wedding it's self. Just two families having a great time in a big old beach house. Josh & Courtney after the ceremony, the guys putting up the arbor, beach house and with empty beach chairs waiting for the fun to begin, wedding practice meeting, Josh putting up the flowers on the arbor.
