Landscaper's Challenge

We paid good money for poop on Friday. A whole lot of it, and some compost and peat moss too. All this was in preparation for our weekend project--tearing out the giant shrubberies (!) in front of our house. They were planted when Ronald Reagan was president, so they were pretty stubborn. Now that they were old enough to have finished college, it was time to show them a little tough-love. Actually, there was no love involved. We cussed at them, hoping they'd give up and die, but ultimately it was a combination of cutting the giant tentacle roots and pulling them out with the truck that did them in. It was a 2-day job, and we're glad we didn't know that when we started, or we might have let them stay. We had the added "encouragement" of not having anywhere good to store the bags of cow manure etc. Driving to work all week with a bed full of poop wasn't an option!

Below are some "before" and "intermediate" pictures. I'll provide the "after" pictures once we get the new plantings in (probably next weekend).