Today’s gardening?

Juniper bush. I think it was original to the house, ca 1954. It had spread, from a central trunk about 10″ in diameter, to a woody mass about 5 feet in diameter, and had radiated out branches each as thick as a lady’s wrist, about 8 in number to a radius of 15 to (we’re still not sure if some of those bushes still green are independent or connected) 30 feet.

It had also grown up tall enough (hip-high) the city wanted it removed, because it’s on a corner.

So—two women both over 60, with a bitty Poulan electric chainsaw, a pair of loppers, a pair of hand clippers, and a bottle of Aleve… have, today, reduced this thing to a 15’x10′ patch of dead dust with a knee-high stump we are going to declare a permanent monument….plus a big pile of thick juniper branches we can’t put in the green bin, and a big pile of juniper foliage we CAN put in the green bin. We are going to move in three small junipers from the retaining wall, move two small burning-bush plants from the side garden to the area of the retaining wall where the small junipers were, and we are declaring it a victory. If that stump’s still live, and sends out more branches, at least they’ll be little ones.

And that’s BEFORE we actually get to work today.