Back in March we decided to turn our attention to the yard. First, a friend volunteered to come out and help us make sense of the situation. We didn’t realize that all the ivy we had allowed to grow on the trees was actually a bad thing because it can hurt the trees themselves. So one of the first steps we took was to cut back all the ivy at the base of the trees. We also pruned down the two large holly bushes, one on each side, blocking windows at the front of the house and removed some straggly azalea bushes from the midst of the ivy island on the right below.
After a few weeks, the ivy on several of the trees began to shrivel and die. Others still had quite a bit of green to them. So one Saturday I spent some time pulling ivy off the tree. I learned that it’s a little bit easier to pull the green/live ivy because it doesn’t break off as easily as the dead vines do.
You can see the pile of ivy from the trees there in the foreground. I was actually a little surprised at how I liked the cleaner look! I’d gotten use to the greenery growing everywhere.
Because landscaping is not our forte, and we not only wanted a plan but someone who would know what plants to use where, we decided to engage a professional. I found Robby with Flowerscapes Garden Design through Hometalk. I’ll describe how that process went and share more pics soon.
Have you been working in the yard this season? Any major (or minor) changes?
-J
I am in the process of the same thing right now. We bought a house (about a year ago) that has tons of landscaping/ivy and I’m just now (with the help of an amazing gardener/neighbor) figuring out what to do. Loved the before/after. =)