Pruning

Spring has hit me with a bang and I am absolutely starving to get my hands in some dirt. But, since we’re renting and have no idea how long we’ll be renting, there’s not much I can do about that. Instead I’ve been turning my attention to chopping things.

I can’t even guess how long it’s been since this yard had regular attention. Years. The backyard is lined with those rosebushes that, after my efforts, look like a collection of sticks, but once stretched higher than the fence and were a tangled bramble of crisscrossed stems snaking behind the trees and choking on each other. I read that roses love a good pruning, so I tried to not be afraid and just do what needed to be done.

The front yard was far worse. I was embarrassed every time I pulled into the garage. Things were so overgrown, and really, overplanted, that it was starting to limit access to the front door.

Along with these junipers in front of some kind of a bulb plant, there were three more planted in the middle of the lawn. I really hate junipers, but even if you loved them, why would you put them in the middle of the lawn? I pulled those ones out without a second thought about our security deposit and sent them off to the city compost.

The ones closer to the house I tried to salvage, but they had been let go for so long that it would take years of careful pruning to get them back into the shape and size they needed to be for the house. After a couple of afternoons of research and pruning, I just decided that they couldn’t be saved and pulled them out too.

Look at how much better it looks already! Those bulb plants desperately need to be divided, and I still have more pruning to do of the shrubs that are staying, and please don’t even get me started on this lawn, but definitely an improvement. I imagine that the person who bought the house was impatient to let the plants grow into the space, so instead they crammed it way too full and didn’t allow anywhere for the plants to go.

I’ve been so aggressive with this poor neglected yard that part of me was afraid I had gone too far. But not even a week after I finished my assault on the roses I saw the backyard decorated with all these beautiful burgundy leaves of new growth. It’s like the roses were craving a little pruning so they could sprout off in new directions. Maybe that’s something I need to keep in mind with the way this year is going.