Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Trimming the Hedges

I have lived in this house for a little over 9 months now, and my husband and I have really done only the bare minimum when it comes to taking care of our yard. And by bare minimum I mean we have mowed the lawn....that's really about all we've done (just ask our neighbors!). And, so far it's pretty much been my husband's domain. Unfortunately, he doesn't have all that much time to devote to the yard. Pair that with the fact that I'm too cheap to pay someone to do it for us (why should we pay someone to do something we are fully capable of doing ourselves?) and you end up with me taking it upon myself to help Will out in the yard.
Our poor hedges are one area of the yard that needed some desperate attention - they hadn't been trimmed in nearly a year! So, this was one of the first tasks that I decided to tackle. Here are a few "before" and "after" pictures.

before
after






























before
after



before


after
So, as you can see it made quite a difference in both the appearance of the hedges and in the ability to see the porch. I was amazed at how simple (and satisfying) it was to trim the hedges back and shape them (except for that last one - it refused to let me shape it).

What will my next project in the yard be, you ask? Take a look at this:




Unfortunately the weeds have taken over our yard (and footpaths) so I think I'll tackle them next. And in the process of tackling the weeds I hope to re-grade and re-seed our back yard....I guess my husband and I have a lot to learn about taking care of our yard!

2 comments:

Megan said...

Word! We thank our lucky stars we live in a neighborhood without a homeowners' association with rules about such things. We would have been kicked out a long time ago. Way to go with the hedgetrimmers! Do tell if you find an efficient way to de-weed a yard.

Melissa said...

You know, for the footpaths, I'd just use kerosene in a squirt bottle or if that's too do-it-yourself, I'd use the Roundup squirt stuff... that way, you don't have to dig around, etc.