Yard Work: Trimming the Hedge

Y'all know I have been a little on edge about the overgrown state of our yard. Well, we have finally tackled the beast in the front yard and have some amazing Before&After photos to share with you. Two people, a chainsaw and a trimmer can do a lot of damage!

We were able to tackle the front of the house quickly as Ty manned the chainsaw,
and I learned to use the trimmer!

Before

After

In order to trim the shrubs we first made a PLAN OF ACTION. You know we love planning, to-do lists, etc! I did a rough (and I mean rough!) drawing of the current bushes that were in the front of the house. Then we decided what needed to stay, what needed to go, and what needed to be moved. We then moved from left to right trimming the house. It was incredibly helpful to have two people as one of us could stand at the road and determine symmetry, while the other trimmed. It also kept us from cutting too much...
a little accountability is always good!

Before

After

We researched (eh, googled) trimming a tad before we went to work as well. Most shrubbery can only be cut back so much at a time (about 1/4 to 1/3 of its total size), so it was hard to get all the shrubbery to equal sizes this first go, but oh what a difference it made!

Before

After

We still need to transplant some shrubs to the empty spot below the window (see above pic), but it does look miles better than the scattered ground cover that was there previously. Meanwhile, we calmed the  hysterical wysteria in the backyard. Trimming wisteria is a little more technical than I originally realized. While you can tame & train the wisteria by cutting the well established limbs/vines, the blooms are another story. For each blooming vine or new growth, you have to find the wood root that it is growing from and then count 6 buds out for EACH vine so that the vine will still flower... talk about tenuous. There are at least 100 new blooms on this wisteria plant alone so I will be slowly but surely finishing that task.

Before

After

The Finished Product! Now that's progress!

TO DO: 

1. Go to work with a trimmer and cut back the hedges, 

overgrown weeds and limbs around the bases of trees (basically, Clean it up!)

2. Mulch around the existing flower/tree beds.