It has been really dry here in Central Florida. No rain for five weeks now. It’s crazy when other parts of the country are flooding, (i.e. Arkansas) They are teasing us with a thunderstorm Monday.
Mowing our yard, a.k.a. weeds, is out as it just raises a dirty, gritty dust. So I have been doing a little judicious pruning.
The back corner of our lot has been neglected for years. It has helped buffer some of the noise from our neighbor’s ongoing party (three years now), but I am getting tired of looking at it and it tends to harbor snakies.
I put together our bushwhacker, electric chainsaw, assorted pruning thingies and other implements of destruction, put on long pants and set to it. A job I had been dreading and building up in my mind as a humongous task turned into four hours of sweat and a few minor scrapes. That included at least 2 air conditioned water/cigarette breaks!
This is the result;
There are a couple of crepe myrtles back in there that need pruning still, as soon as I can afford the gasoline. The bushes were primarily… logustrums ? Their roots go everywhere. The medium size trees to the center right are the original logustrum bushes, now trees. I left a line of those suckers between the trees to hopefully become a chest high hedge. Kind of a two tier shrub/border.
This should be sufficient to buffer the noise and discourage wayward partygoers.
We’ll see.
6 comments so far
Eklectic
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1473 posts in 307 days
hardiness zone 5a
posted 205 days ago
Amazing how we keep “postponing” certain chores and we we get around to do them, it turns out to be a lot easier!
As well as very rewarding!
Great job! Looks really nice!
-- Eklectic, Follow my Bliss, South East Ontario 5a
Bon
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1732 posts in 287 days
hardiness zone 5a
posted 205 days ago
Wow you really did wack away (lol) Did you get rid of the snakies? (lol)
Nice job of cleaning up.
-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more
XploreOrganics
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844 posts in 386 days
hardiness zone 5b
posted 205 days ago
A lot of work…I have to say tho, I did like the way it looked before, but it is understandable to want to get rid of some snake habitat…We don’t have snakes here and I can’t imagine wanting any around, unless for some kind of rodent control.
-- Xploreorganics, 5b Canada, LFD 06-20
dustynewt
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13 posts in 214 days
hardiness zone 10
posted 205 days ago
Bon – In Florida you never get rid of the snakes, or bugs.
Xploreorganics – It did look okay the way it was. The thing is, when the daily rains start at the end of June, this area would quadruple in size if not easily maintained. Now I can just mow it all down with the rest of the weeds.
Thanks for the comments, ya’ll.
-- http://www.dustynewt.com
GrandmaT
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3211 posts in 385 days
hardiness zone 5
posted 205 days ago
Wow, really nice transformation!!! You can really see all your hard work.
-- "A perfect garden is just a garden to be in-perfection. Mornings to work on it and evenings to pause and look at it." Southeast Michigan, Zone 5a/5b
Bon
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1732 posts in 287 days
hardiness zone 5a
posted 202 days ago
I can’t even imagine not being able to get rid of the snakes.If I lived there If would have to have a pair of steel knee high boots made (LOL) and a big stick too.
-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more