When I woke this morning I already had my day mapped out. I was going to finish the cement raised beds in the vegetable garden; plant the lavender and cover with weed barrier and mulch; build the arbor (which is the entrance to the vegetable garden) and design my lady scarecrow. That was the plan but the Juniper bush (to be known hence forth as The Beast) in my front yard was mocking me and I just had to see if I could wipe the smirk off its' face.
With a pair of loppers I began clipping a small opening through the green branches; trying to find a larger branch to cut off so I could get inside The Beast and cut it down. The process was NOT easy and the interior was so densely packed with dead/dried branch leaves that it was nearly impossible to see what to cut. I tried to "snap" a few branches to loosen the debris and that did work slightly but it also sent dust into the air that had me sneezing.
The Beast is approximately 12' long, 6' wide and 11' tall - Age 37 years
After three hours of constant lopping and all I had to show was a bald Beast. You can see the red loppers I used, laying on the ground.
I was not going to allow The Beast to beat me so I spent another two hours cutting whatever I could get my hands on, but as you can see from the next two images; that was not easy to do. After 37 years of growth this plant was a twisted, tightly knotted mess!
I was done! The Beast had won the battle, but the war was not over.....I hired a guy with a chainsaw and now I'm the winner!!! The Beast is gone and my front yard already looks brighter.
Stay tuned to see the transformation of the berm!
On a side note: I did save a significant amount of the wood from the bush. I will let it dry and then use it in my fire pit.
The next image shows all of the debris that I removed from The Beast (about 10% of the pile came from the soon to be Garden Patio are)
The Diva Farmer ~ Come Grow With Us
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