A Weekend of Landscaping...ugh

Thor and I got a bee in our bonnet about some ugly yew hedges we had in the front of the house. They were ugly, tall, and pruned into hideous rectangles - they were just not us at all. Here's what the house looked like before we dug the yews out (the tall, dark green rectangles on either side of our front door). I won't even begin discussing the enormous, green juniper bush growing across our front bank. We refer to it as Jabba the Hedge. That's how much we like it.


Here's what the house looks like from the street after we got done digging out the yews. It really opens up the front yard and the porch a lot. We like it a LOT better.

Thor in the middle of digging out one of the huge root balls.

Here you can see all the dirt that poor Thor had to schlep around the front yard.

A shot of the red New Zealand flax, Phormium tenax 'Rubrum', that Thor & I put in instead to replace the yews. Eventually these flax should grow to 6-8 feet high and 4-5 feet wide.


This butterfly bush also came out the same weekend. The butterfly bush is the large, overbearing bush on the left hand side of the park strip with the purple flowers all over it. Butterfly bushes are incredibly attractive to, you guessed it, butterflies -- BUT -- this bush was overwhelming our pear tree which is right next to it. Hmm...pears or overbearing bush....pears or overbearing bush? Yep - pears win out. Out the bush came!


I replaced the butterfly bush in the parkstrip with a Russian Sage Perovskia atriplicifolia.


Here's a shot of the park strip after the butterfly bush came out. Once again - much more open and I think it makes the park strip look a bit more balanced as well. It has been about two weeks since dug the bush out and I swear our pear tree is looking healthier already. The pears have grown a lot and the foliage looks healthier. Thor snuck a baby pear and he said that although it was really hard & crunchy the flesh was delicious & sweet. Hooray! Hopefully we'll be harvesting our pears by the end of August!