Manly Man is Manly: Mr. Moon's treacherous war with nature

Mum planted butterfly bushes along one side of the house, but they haven't been properly maintained and pruned for about 4 years. Having joint surgery will do that to you. Well, these bushes got a little... out of control. One was so weighed down that it's pointing completely away from the house, and needs to be removed. All of them were overhanging the fence and at least 2-3 feet into the neighbors' yard. As kind and understanding as they have been, I know the president of the housing association would have liked for her neighbors to be taking care of their yard a bit better. They've very politely expressed how excited they are that we have moved in to help out, and how they don't envy us this job of cutting back the bushes. Hint received.

As you can imagine, with a gate that won't even open due to tree roots pushing up the path stones, we have some work cut out for us.

Well, after much stalling and tending to more urgent matters, it became evident how urgent the pruning was. We realized that the rose bushes along the back wall had grown INTO the eves of the house, and the butterfly bushes were growing into the siding. Time to devote a nice sunny, if cool, day to some heavy lifting.


What we found was another rose bush that Mum had forgotten was even there, which had grown into the siding as well. 3 hours of clipping later, Mr. Moon wrecked havoc on those branches and created a path of devastation in his wake.

Of course it wasn't until after this was all down that we considered how we expected to dispose of these branches, as there is too much to go into the compost pile. Still not sure how we're going to take care of that, but it looks like another day with some pruning shears and a few yard waste bags. I am SO glad that is not my job!