I must admit I loved our shrubbery, foster hollies and surrounding hostas when we first bought our house. The landscaping seemed to spell “home” in my mind. A well loved, welcoming presence that represented our family. As shown above, Jeananne was in first grade, when the landscaping looked similar to how it was when we first moved in. But going on 19 years later, it is quite a different situation, a harbinger of things to come. The hostas are long gone, simply vanished under the sprawling taxus and invading ivy. In fact, the taxus were so overgrown they were partially blocking the windows view. Notice Jeananne standing with Katherine senior year. What to do? Last year I started experimenting, hard trimming the taxus from the back side, wondering how they would grow back. Then this year the foster hollies seemed so incredibly tall, I had no idea what to do with them. Trim them? it seemed impossible at this stage. To have someone cut them back seemed to be too late, they would simply look ridiculous and probably kill them. Then, I had my annual termite inspection in august, and the owners son tactfully said, “You know, you really need to get those hollies off your house.” Well, that did it. In an instant, I knew the time had come, chop, chop, harrie carrie. Now I am in the midst of cutting down the bushes myself. Here is what it looks like now with the hollies removed and bushes chopped.
