I would be doing a happy dance right now if I wasn't so pooped from the weekend's projects. Saturday, the house got a facelift in the form of a bush-ectomy. Birds chirped in happiness, the sun shone in approval, and the choruses in my head were singing "Halleluiah." Ok, so I may be exaggerating a little, but the outcome was well worth the effort and I couldn't be more pleased!
Here's what the unsuspecting front yard looked like in the morning hours:
Let the games begin! The helpful parents made the trek from CT with all their tools to help. I learned long ago: If I don't have the tool I need, don't go out and buy it, Handy Dad probable has 3 extra. (and often times, borrowing tools leads to helping hands too- win-win!)
First step of a bush exorcism? Expose the roots and start hacking away at them:
Next step? Attempt to yank it out with my parent's mighty CR-V. The irony is that Hubby and I have an 8 cylinder Jeep Grand Cherokee that has no trailer hitch or any place to attach any towing assembly to, making it as useless as our other car (a convertible) for towing.
Well, the mighty CR-V let us down this time (shocked? yeah, us too). Indiana Jones, uh..I mean Handy Dad and Hubby continued hacking at the roots of this bush while Mom and I got started on the lesser of the two evil bushes.
All the while, my furry project buddy was supervising.
Once we hacked out the roots as much as possible, mighty CR-V did prove useful as a big heavy object to attach a ratcheting pulley to.
Eventually the evil bush forfeited and Hubby celebrated the victory with bad Braveheart impressions (I'll spare you).
The lesser bush was far less climactic of an extraction after the excitement of the first bush. Once we excitedly had both bushes removed, Mom and I sent the men to dispose of the bushes while we plotted the beautification of the 2 new dirt holes.
Better already, right?
Mom kept busy with Hosta relocation (since they were previously squished in between the gigantic bushes and the stairs), while I worked on creating a stone border on the right side to match the one that already existed on the left.
Soon enough we were ready to start figuring out flower location, although I saved the actual planting and mulching for the next day.
Ready to see the outcome?
Have I built up enough anticipation yet with all the pictures?
Maybe I should make you wait until tomorrow to see the final product....
Just kidding!! Here's what our front yard looks like now!
The new stone border might need some more love when I get up the energy to quik-crete it in place (like the other side), but it is good enough for now.
Isn't the front yard pretty? Now can you see why I was feuding with the bushes? They were in the way of my lovely garden!