Front Of House
latest update
"Trim the bushes in front of the house. cut the lowest branches off the holly tree. plant tulips and arrange other flowers/plants in planters."
We've been told that the bushes in front of the house are azaleas. We've been told that they bloom red and are very pretty, and since we haven't seen any sign of flowers we're assuming they bloom later in the summer. Based on these assumptions I think our azaleas may be Plum Leaf Azaleas. Either way... they look bad right now. You can see that the one on the left is scraggly -- what you can't see is that it is twined with viney weeds. The one on the right, meanwhile, is overgrown and untended. It's also clogged with weeds, and with trash as well.
On a pleasant Friday morning we removed the bush and associated weeds on the left. It came up pretty easily; much of it appeared to be dead. The removal of the bush left a great spot to plant something, but the six tulips I had ready just looked like they'd be too sparse. We need lusher plants there. So I planted the tulips around on the left edge of the porch.
The day after we took out the bush, a neighbor told Rick that he remembered when those azaleas were planted, 50 or 60 years ago, and back then it was a sign of wealth and high class to have azaleas. That made us feel a little guilty.
Rick and I disagree on what to do about the bush on the right side. I'd like to trim it real good, down to the level of the porch floor and then even with the steps and with the right side of the porch. He wants to take it out altogether. We're still in discussion.
Meanwhile, there's the holly tree. We have two of them that tower over the house. The one further back in the yard has had its lower branches cut off so that the foliage doesn't start until about 10 feet up. It was actually several weeks before I realized this was even a holly tree at all. The tree at the front of the yard, however, is way out of control.
Its branches hang down and touch the ground in a huge radius around the tree, blocking part of the sidewalk and meeting the azalea bush so that you can't walk between the porch and the tree. Over some period of time a lot of trash has accumulated under the tree because you can't even see it unless you pull aside the leaves and look.
Faith took this picture of the thick foliage that conceals whatever is under the tree:
We want to cut off the lower branches so that the space around the tree is passable and useable. Rick has worked on it some, but it is tough work with the small saw he has and with the fact that the branches are alive.
A new and better saw made short order of the holly tree branches. Now we still have plenty of foliage but can walk by on the sidewalk and maybe plant some nice ground cover underneath to replace the old liquor bottles and candy bar wrappers.
Rick said that a colony of large centipedes were living under the tree. I hope they don't find their way into the house.
While Rick and I argued over the fate of the remaining azalea bush, it surprised us by blossoming and blooming. It's really very pretty -- pinkish-red blooms. Something still needs to be done about it, though, because it's grown out of control. According to the Azalea Society, I should have pruned it before it bloomed, although I would have cut off this year's blossoms. If I wait until these blossoms are gone to prune, I will be cutting off next year's blossoms! The remaining choice is to cut off the flowers now -- then they can be used in arrangements or vases, and we'll still hopefully be able to grow flowers for next year.
I got a giant box of impatiens seeds, hopefully enough to cover the bare side of the porch, populate hanging baskets, and maybe even grow a bit under the holly trees.
The azalea continues to amaze me. It's just about the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It's going to hurt to have to prune off the blossoms, but on the other hand, they're going to make gorgeous indoor arrangements. We'll have to have a dinner party or something just to show them off.
We got orange sunstar flowers to put in containers on the front steps, and I liberally sprinkled impatiens seeds all over the bare spot where the other azalea bush was taken out. I also did two hanging baskets with impatiens seeds in them. Now I need the patience to wait for them to sprout! I hope that the birds did not eat them like I suspect they ate my carrot seeds, and I also hope that the impatiens will be hardy enough to grow in the clay that is all over the front yard.
The impatiens never did come up, either in the ground or in the hanging baskets. I have no idea why. Anyway, Rick got me two little pink azaleas for Mother's Day and we planted them in the bare dirt. They're doing fine, but they look pathetic next to the 50 year-old mammoth on the other side. When the blooms were just starting to wrinkle up and fall, Rick pruned it a bit, and it looks better. The next thing to be done is to pull out all the ugly weeds twined through it and underneath it.
The sunstars are hanging in there, too. They don't look as nice as they did when we first brought them home, but we've gotten new blooms and I just like the way the two planters look on the steps.
The tulips around the side of the porch died as soon as I put them in the ground, and I planted freesia bulbs to replace them which just sat there in the ground for long enough to really annoy me. They've sprouted now, though, and are growing quickly. I planted ten bulbs and seven of them are coming up -- not too bad.
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