Between my husband's surgery and rehab care and our excessive summer rains, I guess I have pretty much neglected a lot of our back yard. The lawn men still cut, edge, trim and blow everything once a week, so it is presentable, but I do the gardening so the weeds, deadheading, etc. fall to me. And I love it that way. I enjoy gardening. It gives me quiet time and is very peaceful and calming to me.
But, every now and then, I look around and decide that it "is time". I don't think I ever really plan a day like yesterday-it just sort of happens. I am a "one thing leads to another" kind of gal. That is why I usually avoid big projects until I know I have whole days free-never quite know where I will end up once I have started.
I noticed a lot of vines coming up and over our fence at the back point. We have almost 17 undeveloped acres behind us and all sorts of things find their way into our yard. Our property is a little more than 3/4 of an acre and there are many areas we don't use all that much. The point on the other side of the pool is just such an area. Over the years I have tried to plant formal gardens and make seating areas but they have always gone by the wayside as we gravitate to the areas around the pool, new patio or playground most often.
Many, many years ago I put in low brick walls around the perimeter of this point and planted azaleas and tea olives. It softens all of the privacy fencing in that area and makes it look like I am on top of things when I really am not. Once the field infringement gets very noticeable, I get busy. I stand on a ladder and lean behind it to clip the vines and bushes as low as I can get. And then I start yanking the vines that have covered the ground and entwined in the bushes. That usually leads to my pruning back the azaleas. And that is where I most often stop. But, every so many years, I look at the azaleas and realize that the base plant is just ugly. Often the main shoots have grown together and the plant just isn't pretty any more-and, since they are azaleas, their "green" time is much longer than their bloom time. And so it was yesterday. The mood just struck and before I knew it, I had every bush pruned back to nubs.
They will probably survive but I am not sure. Nor do I really care. I have been thinking lately about possibly digging them all out and trying to establish a shade garden in this area. And so, I will wait to see what develops. I will let you know. I am O.K. either way. Really. Just thankful we have our pool as it was so hot yesterday that I would head in for a dip every few minutes. I think that is the only way I would have survived. I guess I could have waited for the weather to cool off a bit but I have so many more fun things planned for those days. Stay tuned.
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